A GLIMPSE OF HELL

A thoroughly researched, exhaustively detailed look at the gun-turret explosion aboard the recommissioned battleship USS Iowa by a former naval officer, reporter, and producer of 60 Minutes (for which he produced two segments on this incident). Thompson skillfully reconstructs the conditions and events leading up to the explosion in gun-turret number two, which killed 47 men; he also vividly portrays the various people who played key roles in the explosion and the subsequent investigation. While the technical particulars of the incident and the ship’s history would take an advanced science degree to master, Thompson manages to convey the salient facts in a clear and accessible light. But it’s in his account of the navy’s reaction to the explosion that he particularly excels—he shows an entire bureaucracy in action and depicts such personages as the captain of the Iowa, Fred Moosally, making greater attempts to limit damage to his career than to discover the cause of the accident and prevent possible future loss of life. Thompson takes the navy to task for trying to depict one dead sailor, Clayton Hartwig, as a homosexual, and then pinning a charge of sabotage against him for intentionally causing the explosion to settle a lovers” quarrel. Hartwig’s parents are central figures in the book, showing the callousness of the navy in its efforts to shift the blame to their son. While Thompson doesn—t provide final conclusions for what caused the accident—the navy couldn—t determine a cause—he conjectures that improper handling of WWII-era powder was a likely factor. A compelling look at an explosion at sea and the navy’s botched handling of its investigation by a top-flight journalist. (photos, not seen)