Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Blaming the deceased

Thursday, April 29, 1999 | 10:31 a.m.

ALTHOUGH IT received very little media coverage, last week the Associated Press reported a simple request made by a former commander of the battleship Iowa. Retired Navy Capt. Larry Seaquist, on the 10th anniversary of the tragic explosion that killed 47 sailors on the Iowa, asked the Navy for an apology for the way the investigation was conducted. The Navy investigators initially blamed a "possible" homosexual relationship between sailors for the deadly blast and harassed their families. It was truly one of several messes created by military investigators at that time.

Because of other sloppy investigations conducted by military investigators, the Iowa explosion caught my eye. After reading a report by the General Accounting Office I wrote:

"So what's new? The U.S. Navy investigators got so wrapped up in homosexual and psychological theories they overlooked some needed technical examinations of the deadly explosion on the battleship USS Iowa. Why worry when the whole episode could be written off as the suicide of a dead enlisted man? Gunner's Mate Clayton M. Hartwig couldn't defend himself, and certainly his middle-class family and married sister couldn't take on the powerful military and question the results of a 'thorough investigation.'

"The Navy accepted the questionable conclusion of its own investigators and went public with the results that smeared the names of every man, including those 47 killed in the explosion, on the proud old warship. Only the dogged battle put up by Hartwig's sister and the results of a General Accounting Office report have pointed out reasons for the Navy conclusions to be seriously doubted. Hartwig's sister, Kathleen Kubicina, called the original Navy charges a 'big, horrible miscarriage of justice.' "

Later on in that column I warned that the Navy brass and investigators wouldn't accept the GAO report, but would do everything possible to justify their original errors. They were initiated by Hartwig's sister forcing their hands after they had easily blamed a dead man for the accident. I wasn't wrong because 10 years later Capt. Seaquist's request for an apology was answered by Navy mouthpiece Commander Mike Andrews, who told the press, "What Capt. Seaquist says is his opinion. That's his right." But no apology was forthcoming.

It was only seven years before the Iowa disaster that Henderson sailor Larry Stomner lost his life along with five of his buddies during a fatal fire on the USS Ranger in the Arabian Sea. The initial report makes it clear that these men acted heroically when staying to fight the fire in close quarters that fateful day. It also makes clear that it was an unnecessary fire that may not have happened if two enlisted men overseeing the transfer of fuel had been properly trained and supervised. Neither man was among the sailors who died. The two men and the Ranger's engineering officer, Cmdr. Melanephy, were left to shoulder the blame.

The two enlisted men, Phillip DeFranco and Mark Lonteen, were tried before a special court-martial. Lonteen was acquitted of all charges and DeFranco was sentenced to three months' confinement. The skipper of the Ranger was able to wash his hands and the culprits had been reprimanded and tried. All neat and clean and the matter was closed.

Well at least the Navy investigators and the skipper thought it was all wrapped up, until Adm. James D. Watkins, chief of naval operations, demanded a more thorough report. I read the 334-page second report, which resulted in the admiral releasing DeFranco after he had served two months in jail. Watkins did burn the skipper, Capt. Arthur Fredrickson, and the prior skipper, Capt. Anthony Less, for unsafe conditions that led to the deadly blaze. Watkins made clear that the buck stopped on top.

The military isn't the only segment of our society that easily writes off tragedies by blaming an airplane pilot, truck driver or other person who died in an accident. The dead can't defend themselves and become easy targets for investigators at all levels. This is especially true in the case that a death is explained away as a suicide.

Just the other night NBC, in a "Dateline" story, pointed out the incompetent actions of a medical examiner in Texas. His actions have possibly sent several people to prison for deaths they didn't cause. It was a long program and toward the end interviewers went to the man's superior, who only made a smart remark and walked away. He is the same man the Army used as an "expert" to protect its very questionable conclusions that Las Vegan Spec. 4 Pepper Ellison had committed suicide at Fort Huachauca, Ariz., in the fall of 1983. The investigators had bungled it in the beginning and then spent almost 10 years trying to cover up its errors. Finally, the Army paid this outside "expert" to support its conclusions.

An apology and the truth won't bring back lives, but they certainly can make the pain a bit more bearable for the family members left behind.