A Glimpse of Hell : The Explosion on the U. S. S. Iowa & Its Cover-Up [Hardcover]

Charles C. Thompson II (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

Early one April morning in 1989, during a routine training exercise in the Caribbean, the center gun in Turret Two of the recommissioned battleship USS Iowa blew up. A batched investigation of the forty-seven fatalities began mere hours after the deadly explosion. Captain Fred Moosally, an Annapolis football star who had recently taken command of the Iowa, declined an offer of assistance from a professional accident team aboard a nearby aircraft carrier. Matters worsened when the investigation began on land. An investigative panel was led by a rear admiral whose handling of a sister ship to the Iowa had come under critical review. A technical team managed to lose key evidence - two 2,700-pound projectiles, in a locked storage facility - while conducting tests that proved nothing but the team's own incompetence. Squads from the Naval Investigative Service tried to twist testimony from grieving relatives of the slaughtered crew members. The concerted effort to pin blame for the Iowa explosion on Seaman Hartwig, supposedly acting to revenge a thwarted homosexual affair, ultimately destroyed careers up the chain of command of the U.S. Navy.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

On April 19, 1989, Turret Two aboard the recommissioned battleship USS Iowa exploded, killing 47 men. In A Glimpse of Hell, former naval officer, newspaper reporter, and 60 Minutes producer Charles Thompson has written an authoritative exposé of the United States Navy high command's consistent efforts to manipulate the evidence of that disaster and slander deceased seaman Clayton Hartwig. The Iowa investigation is contextualized by Thompson's startling insights into the moral universe of the navy's masters, a cabal so protective of their own jobs that they prepared press releases indicating that an out-of-control Tomahawk missile launched from the Iowa was actually a part of a federal and military crackdown on an illicit marijuana field in Alabama. Unlike the Tomahawk debacle, the falsehoods embroidered into the investigation of the Turret Two disaster did become public, as naval officials accepted a noticeably botched report from investigators who "lost" two 2,700-pound projectiles and consistently claimed, with no foundation, that Hartwig, killed in the explosion, was a murderous and suicidal psychopath who blew up the turret in revenge for a thwarted homosexual affair. Two years later, they were forced to admit that they had no clear and convincing evidence linking Hartwig to the explosion and apologized to his surviving family members. (The family later initiated a $12 million defamation lawsuit against the U.S. Navy.)

As active duty officers rebuffed his own investigation, Thompson found that many personnel, including captains and admirals, were willing to talk when their careers were no longer on the line. A Glimpse of Hell assiduously follows the Iowa story with a dedication that honors the dead and their families, as one journalist does more to expose the careerism and sexual preoccupations of ranking naval officers--and their consequences--than any government investigative agency. --James Highfill

From Publishers Weekly

The U.S. Navy received a barrage of bad publicity after the infamous 1989 explosion that killed 47 sailors and the even more disgraceful coverup that followed. If even half of what Thompson alleges is true, the coverup was the end of a long line of blunders and lies involving the Iowa, which Thompson calls "a 59,000-ton accident looking for a place to happen." Though Thompson makes it clear that lax safety and poor training most likely caused the explosion, the navy chose to pin the blame on second-class gunner's mate Clayton Hartwig. For starters, he was rumored to be gayAthough the navy never proved that. Also, his family tried to go after the $50,000 life insurance policy that he'd left to a shipmate. But mostly, it seems, it was easier for the navy to blame an enlisted man than to admit that the accident could have been avoided altogether were it not for a deadly combination of arrogance, ignorance and carelessness both aboard the ship and among navy higher-ups in Washington and Norfolk, Va. A former naval officer who produced several stories about the explosion and coverup for 60 Minutes, Thompson has no ax to grind against the navy as an institution. In fact, he clearly loves the navy at its best. He writes with careful attention to detail (and a familiarity with sometimes dizzying military acronyms) and a slow, burning rage at how investigators willfully distorted the truth, misled the public and set out to destroy the reputation of a sailorAseemingly all so that the navy could cover its own brass.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393047148
• ISBN-13: 978-0393047141
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Turret One's Division Officer, November 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Glimpse of Hell : The Explosion on the U. S. S. Iowa & Its Cover-Up (Hardcover)

Lest there be doubts, IOWA exploded due to a combination of volatile gun power, the lack of safety interlocks, and an unknown event in Turret Two which pushed the crew faster than the power and gun system could manage. The men did their best given the constraints their peers, their command, and their Navy had placed upon them. I am IOWA's last Turret One Officer, at least the last Division Officer who daily mustered men on station in preparation for gunnery, underway. I am also one of the "Gang of Four" who aided Charlie with his book. My father retired after 38 years in the submarine service, and many of the senior officers in the U.S. Navy and the Royal Navy while I was an officer knew of my father, and our family. From the outset, let me say that Charlie's book underscores the degeneration of what we used to call "they Navy Family". The command does not treat spouses and children (relatives, too) as an integrated part of the command (as it did when I was a child), or, indeed, as the citizens to which they are pledge to defend. Once you grasp this point, you can understand why the chain of command treated the memory, and families, of the IOWA-47 they way it did. This is a good book for prospective khaki or bluejacket to read, it is also a good book for Americans, in general, to read as they try to figure out whether the Justice Department has an accuracy problem with WACO, whether Energy Department employees were radiated and not told so, and whether gene therapy patients are dying without NIH knowing so -- there is a pattern of professional deceit centered on Washington these days. IOWA was just the first time the Officer Corps turned on its own men in order to save a Class of ship. Charlie and Dick's books must be read together, because I agree with reviewers who think Charlie came to the assignment with preconceptions. He is a Vietnam veteran, and he served with honor as a NGFS spotter. That war has left a bad taste in many a veteran's mouth. But his preconceptions were checked against the counsel of VADM Ed Snyder, who had more influence on this book than the reviewers may understand. Admiral Snyder's knowledge of the ship and its Class was unsurpassed. He was very hard on my comments to Charlie, and more than once he ferreted out bias on my part. Do not read this book looking for the excellence of IOWA, or of the great efforts of all crew members on April 19th. It is about the investigation, and that subject tailors all other facts. The complete story of the IOWA still waits to be told, and it would have to address why a "cover-up" was required at all. My own sense is that the trail exists all the way back to the decision, in the late 1970s, to reactivated the Class. Admiral Macauley seemed to understand this; Admiral Boorda knew it. The ships were old, and needed money for overhaul, money that went into missile systems. Given the budgeting environment of the mid-1980s, it does not surprise me that an investigation into a gunnery mishap would look for "personnel error" and not a "technical" cause. Charlie, due to space constraints, does not follow this important thread. What was Congress told, who told them the ships were safe, and why was the inspection process insufficient in ratting out the lie? I had no ax to grind in cooperating with Charlie, and I asked him to contact as many crew and wardroom members as possible, including Captain Moosally. The more sources, the more informed the book. Though some of the IOWA-47 family members were annoyed I waited until September, 1991, to allow Charlie to visit me, I had a war to fight in between my time on the IOWA and my resignation from the Navy. The first time it was possible, I met with Thompson even though the Chief of Naval Information asked me not to cooperate. Many would not cooperate with Charlie. In those instances, he had to rely on sworn testimony. I do agree that footnotes would have been useful, but the book is designed to sell as "popular" literature, and footnotes are not all that popular. My motive in cooperating with Charlie was to protect Turret One, and the reputation built by the sailors, not all of them gunners mates, who helped me and Dale Mortensen make that the No. 1 gun turret on that ship. And yes, there were facts about Turret One that didn't make it into ink. I was a little conceited, as a junior officer. Phil's closeness to his sailors, however, was not the same as mine. My men could do no wrong; Dale and I set impossibly high standards and they reached them. I was very proud of them, and was perhaps too chummy in saying so. But Meyer never drank with his men for more than 20 minutes. It was a rule of my father's Navy, and it was necessary to keep the Division Officer detached, so he could say "No"  the most important word in an officer's vocabulary. We had problems; but we controlled the events that could have turned them into an explosion. At least I'd like to think we did. It may have been a big game of Russian roulette. As for Captain Moosally, I have only attributed a level of responsibility to him that the Navy does to all sea captains. Charlie may have taken the analysis beyond the Navy's standard. And focusing on Fred can be misleading; the real failure came between him and Admirals Trost and Kelso. I tossed and turned over my chance to rat on the investigation (through family connections) in May, 1989. In the end, I did not. I still feel that had Admiral Trost known what his subordinates were doing, he would have protected the investigation from corruption. Had it been 1789, and not 1989, I may have called Edney or Miceli to the Bladensburg dueling grounds to settle the matter. But I just couldn't break the chain of command. I do think that my efforts with both authors (Richard Schwoebel and I discussed his thesis for about an hour) was necessary for very personal reasons. Damnation, in fact. Had I possessed the courage to stand down the command in October, 1988, those 47 men would still be alive. All I did was write a memo, which my superior took very seriously, and who was still working on a response when the explosion occurred. True, others in the Department, or the wardroom, could have done the same, or more. Phil himself wasn't too keen on pointing out our problems to the chain of command. But that still leaves me about six percent of the responsibility. And as it turns out, I was close to exactly six percent of that Turret: Blakey, Schlein and Bopp. When I am judged for my role on that day, it will be the souls of those men who decide my fate. In the final analysis, Charlie's book asks us to examine the relationship between national service and the American citizen. As hard as I want to be on the chain of command, or the Department of the Navy, etc., I do think the federal Government represented the American people throughout this nasty mess. The American people--as represented by many of the current presidential candidates--have a checkered past when it comes to serving this nation. A people divided on the good of national service will treat those who rise above the common norm with disdain; the example set is hard to live with, isn't it? Why are people called to the McCain candidacy? Because his mind is not divided on this issue. The worst decisions in the investigation came from officers worried about the reaction from Washington, D.C., a town with fewer veterans than any other community in America. And did Charlie get my "character" right? I think he made me sound like a crazy old drag queen. If my style of leadership ever came across that way, my since apologies to the gunners of Turret One. And Forward Main Battery is still No. 1 (Turret Two included!).

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I was there: Mr. Thompson's opinions may lead you astray., September 27, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Glimpse of Hell : The Explosion on the U. S. S. Iowa & Its Cover-Up (Hardcover)

I was there. As a young officer onboard the Battleship IOWA, I lived through this tragic event. This book offers the reader a singular theory about the events surrounding the explosion. Don't expect this publication to give you an objective and completely factual account of the range of possibilities for this event. This author approached his work with a pre-determined outcome and then wove a series of opinions into facts to support that outcome. While it is compelling, much of what you will read is founded in the author's pursuit of his own views. You will learn both fact and factoid. Sometimes these facts seem first-hand although they are attributed to the wife of a disgruntled officer. Much of the story is true. In fact, some of the cover-up actually extends beyond what the author uncovered. Some of it is taken out of context and exaggerated to support the author's view. And some of it is just some guy's opinion, that of the author, which is presented to you as indisputable. A wary reader will catch the argumentative manner the author takes to put forth his theory. I do not know what caused this tragedy. I know there remains no certainty in anyone's mind, (except this author and those few sources for this book) as to the true cause. Don't believe everything you read. But in this case, it is worth reading about a military system which broke down in trying to invesigate their own, it broke down in the handling of the explosives, and it broke down to the point of a possible cover-up. Their mistake was pursuing facts to support a theory to the exclusion of the other possibilities. Unfortunately, this author made the same error.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Blame Game, April 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Glimpse of Hell : The Explosion on the U. S. S. Iowa & Its Cover-Up (Hardcover)

I am the Mother of one of the sailor's killed aboard the USS IOWA (BB-61). I was deeply involved in investigating the cause of the explosion. Mr. Thompson's book is well written and statistically accurate. However, much can be said as to where he places the blame. The Navy had no qualms about hanging a dead sailor out to dry. Mr. Thompson didn't go far enough into the dirty tricks the Navy used to promote their theory. Dressing a dead sailor in Hartwigs uniform to prove his location during the explosion,and giving orders for the sailors to keep the actual location of Clay's body a secret. Mr. Thompson made numerous people out to be hero's, when in all actuality they were covering their own tracks. Dan Meyer was credited with exposing the Navy's cover-up of the location of Clay's body. But, he failed to say it took over a year of begging and pleading,from me, to get Meyer's to come forward. There were no hero's that day only pawns, in a deluded man's scheme. In my opinion Stephen Skelley and Ken Costigan, were responsible for the experiments. These experiments and the faulty powder were the direct cause of the explosion in turret two on April 19th, that took the life of "MY SON". Mr. Thompson's book is just that,"a book". It can't bring my child back and it can't give me justice. I must continue my life knowing that the men responsible continue to go unpunished. My only consolation is that unless these men admit their wrong, "A Glimpse Of Hell", will be their just reward.