I was aboard Iowa the day of the explosion. I was a Damage Controlman 2nd Class (DC2) and had been aboard since March 1987. I had breakfast with half the gun crew that morning. I knew most of the guys killed. A few of them I actually considered close friends, including Morrison and Helton, who were my bowling team partners on the ship's bowling league. I really haven't gone bowling since, maybe twice back in the 1990s. I just can't bowl anymore, always looking around for those guys, but knowing they are long gone. This movie and the book are both a crock of BS! It really makes the crew look bad, and we were anything but! The majority of battleship Iowa veterans who were there have also opened up and voiced their disgust with the book and movie. For example, I was involved in firefighting, dewatering, and removing remains, especially from the powder flats in the bottom of the turret on the lowest deck. They portrayed those guys as still intact with their dungarees intact. I can tell you after all these years now, that EVERYONE in that part of the turret were flash burned, their clothes all burned off. I won't go into much detail. Just imagine seeing a bunch of clotheless, hairless mannekins around with only a belt and boots on, and you can somewhat paint a picture. The fireball was so intense, moving so fast, that whatever position these guys were in in that second, is basically how we found them. That has been my continued nightmares to this day. One guy was still kneeling, holding a fire nozzle in one hand with his hand over the bail, as if waiting to turn on the water that never came until the turret sprinklers were activated. Another guy was still sitting, looking up the powder hoist, still wearing a set of sound-powered phones with his hand over the microphone part, finger over the button to talk. Yeah, neither the book nor the movie did any justice to what all really happened!
Indeed.....Hollywood does spice up true stories to bring in the $. I imagine that they were avoiding age restrictions regarding the remains in the turret scenes. The Turret Explosion could have been much worse if not for the efforts of Damage control and decisions made to prevent the other powder bags/shells etc from cooking off....IE full magazine explosion. This event is right up there with USS Forrestals tragic explosion/fire RIP all whom were lost, My sympathies to their families and friends....but also to the sailors who collected their remains - 😢 such as yourself, haunting is apt. TY for your service o7
@@andreasschmidt2739 Quite a bit. The writer only interviewed a handful of the crew. Some of that information was more opinionated than factual. I didn't read all the book because just several pages into it, the madder I got and knew from being there that it in no way was honoring the memories of our 47 shipmates. In the movie, there was a bunch of crap, too. Cracking open beers and sharing them with the gun crew? Very highly unlikely. The only time we were allowed beer onboard was when we were out to sea for more than 3 months without hitting a port. Then, each crewmember was allowed 2 beers. Now, some guys didn't drink, so they sold their beers to other shipmates (my chief got a bit tanked by buying quite a few of those from other guys). Really, there should have been more crewmember interviews and better "investigative reporting" done before that book was ever published. This was just a writer trying to make a name for himself, no matter who it hurt and no matter whether it was accurate or only partly so. The most accurate investigation as to the cause was conducted by Sandia Laboratories. The most likely cause was the proven high speed overram of powder bags compressed against the projectile. I personally talked to several of my Gunners Mate friends from the other turrets. As they knew all the other Gunners, one thing became clear that Charles Thompson III missed out on. We were severely understaffed in the turrets due to some of the crew attending some gunnery school back in the states at the time of the explosion. Therefore, inexperienced crewmembers were assigned turret duty. My friend, GMG3 Heath Stillwagon was reassigned from turret 3 to turret 2 because of the shortage. My very close friends and bowling teammates, LN1 Robert Morrison and LN1 Michael Helton (Legalmen, basically court reporters) were assigned to turret two as punishment for having been found napping during a GQ (General Quarters) drill. Those guys hardly ever slept, really didn't have a "battle station", so I always blamed the XO and Weps officer for their deaths. Another thing that was pointed out was that the rammerman was inexperienced and had only run the rammer before with practice bags, and then with 6 bags, never 5. The fact center gun was behind in loading combined with the fact they were experimenting with a "higher octane/faster burning" gunpowder charge, and the fact that some of the last words were "Center gun a little behind, still loading" led many of us who were there to believe that what most likely happened was, the rammerman was uncomfortable only ramming 5 bags, unsure of how far he needed to push them in, and most likely, knowing the way things worked back then, was probably getting yelled at and being told to hurry up. He may have panicked and just pulled on the rammer too hard and too fast. Not saying he was responsible for the blast, just saying the environment at the time was like a house of cards. There were so many things wrong that it only took one mistake to set it off. I believe Captain Moosally was oblivious to the overall problems in the turrets due to a breakdown in communication within the chain of command. A CO is only as good as the people below him, and if the Weapons Officer wasn't passing crucial information on to the CO, then there's another piece of the puzzle. The new XO we had tended to rule with an iron fist (our previous XO, "Iron Mike" Fahey was, imo, a far better XO who cared about the crew.) I really feel Moosally didn't have a clue as to just how bad things were in Weapons Department. I personally was always writing up and submitting to my LPO deficiencies in the conditions of damage control gear that G2 Division was in charge of. Every division is assigned a DCPO (Damage Control Petty Officer). Truitt was G2's, at least 6 months prior when I worked with him on the turret sprinklers. The biggest issues were with the main deck hatches and passing scuttles for the 16" ammo. Most of them leaked in heavy rains and high seas onto the 2nd deck. I had stood the 0400-0800 DC Central watch the morning of April 19th, 1989. I received the Oil Lab report which shows how many people are onboard, and I clearly remember, we had around 1340 personnel aboard that day according to the report, give or take, may have been in 1350 or 1330 range, but definitely far shy of the 1500 complement we were supposed to have. I believe that had that Admiral not flown out to visit the Iowa that day, it's possible that they may not have even fired the guns that day, and perhaps we could have avoided this disaster. I had a late breakfast with half of turret two's crew that morning. I can still hear them disgusted as they were ordered to "Now man up all main battery fire control stations". Some had just sat down with their trays to eat when GMGCS Ziegler walked into the starboard side aft mess decks yelling, "All you guys were ordered to your stations! Now get there!" I heard some of them yelling back, "F--- that! We ain't even supposed to be firing these guns on this cruise!" A couple more were, "I'll be down as soon as I eat!" Ziegler yelled back, "Anyone not on their post in 10 minutes is on report!" And that was the last time I saw those guys alive. Like I said, so many things that were wrong. The biggest wrong, of course, was Adm. Milligan's botched investigation and trying to use GMG2 Clayton Hartwig as a scapegoat. Had they not gone in that direction, I feel that we, as a crew, could have healed from what happened. But, because of what the Navy did, many of us have never been able to heal. This book and this movie just opened up painful wounds and stirred up more resentment among those of us who were there.
@@danielburdette6648 i went to sign up for the navy in 83 to serve on an Iowa but the recruiter was honest & said the new jersey was already deployed & the Iowa was a year out , so i joined the us army . with that being said , thank you for your service & i BELIEVE you 100000000%
@@danielburdette6648 in additon to my last comments my friend STEVE grubbs was onboard the iowa during the april 19th explosion & he basically said the same as you ohh and sadly april 19th is my birthday
Thank you for posting. I have known about this movie for quite some time and wanted to see it but I always seemed to miss it. I went to high school with Clayton Hartwig at Mt. Vernon Academy in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. We often had conversations about the Navy vs. Air Force. He was a year ahead of me, while I wouldn't say we were close we were good friends and when I heard of this disaster I knew it was a lie and cover up. Once again thank you for posting and I just wish the Navy would come clean and clear my friends name!!
Fascinating that you actually knew Clayton Hartwig. As a Brit I greatly admired the way this film attempted and for me succeeded in giving a balanced perspective to the events. Of course the UK is no stranger to high level scandals and cover-ups. Unfortunately the instinct of all large organisations is self justification and the people in charge of them are arrogant enough to believe the general public can't see through it all.
And then 30 years later, the Navy tried to do the same thing to Seaman Recruit Ryan Mays after the Bohomme Richard fire. The lesson, don't let "Top Gun" be the reason your son or daughter takes the fall for a naval disaster...
Yeah, the upper part of the turret (gun house) was like that, but we kind of expected to see the worst horrors possible from seeing the outside of the turret and the charred paint and teakwood deck outside the turret. I personally was on the 0-1 level port side right behind turret two and felt something hard under my boot. I looked down and picked it up and realized I had a piece about 3 or 4 inches long of someone's jawbone with the gun and 3 molars still in it. I knew it was really bad at that point. Also, I found coins (nickels and quarters) that washed out of the turret that were bent and had the president's faces melted off. I can never forget that day or my shipmates, both those we lost and the ones who were left to clean up the mess. We are a tight knit group.
Captain Moosally got a bad rap as well. I loved that CO. He was always good to the crew, and despite how Hollywood portrayed him, he was a good man (and still is as far as I know).
As a Navy Veteran, I can't say that I liked this movie, it's not that kind of movie, you don't watch something like this to be entertained. I do believe that in as much as any Hollywood movie can, it did its best to tell the truth about the tragic events on that day. A very telling scene at the end of the movie, when Truitt, reported to his new duty station spoke volumes as to how the Navy in particular, and the Military in general works. For the rest of his Naval enlistment, no matter how spotless his record going forward might be. Truitt had a mark on his record. Everything he did after that was seen through that mark. Make no mistake, the Navy, or rather the Armed Forces, never make mistakes, they never make errors in judgment, ever. For any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, to admit to making a mistake, or an error in judgment, is tantamount to showing weakness in the face of the enemy. And as such will not be tolerated.
I think you'd enjoy. "Too Young the Hero" where Ricky Schroder played a 12yo who got into the Navy. He was finally given his awards, but no benefits after that. & thank you for your service.🇺🇸😺😺😷🇺🇸
This is not a hollywood movie, it's a relatively low budget TV movie. The weird part is, just a year later in 2002 came out K-19 Widowmaker with $90 million budget, why not spend that money publicizing some of countless US navy's accidents like this one and highlight their heroism and showing that US officers can also be sometimes negligent? This looks really suspicious from a foreigner's point of view, it really seems like an officer wearing stars and stripes can never be wrong in Hollywood... and then I read about US military supporting movie makers in exchange of right of final cut. In other words, if military doesn't like it, they will force you to change you, or it won't come out.
So read your comment, Absolutely right the military will never admit they exercised bad judgement. I remember seeing this first hand with the Air Force more then once. On a cold -40 F night in Alaska in the middle of a frigging white out we were flying NVG sorties and lost a jet. Now it's hard enough driving in a white out, try flying in one with instrument failure specifically the ADI or aircraft direction indicator this is the gizmo that tells the pilot which way the jet is pointed and whether they are flying level or are inverted. Of course the accident investigation board called it instrument failure which caused the pilot to suffer from spacial disorientation . However if we had not been training in weather we wouldn't conduct real world missions in then pilot would still be alive today. We would never have flown a CAS mission in that type of weather under combat conditions so why were we doing it under peace time training conditions. All the high tech in the world isn't going to be able to pick out targets on the ground under near white out conditions. We should not have been flying that night and it's a miracle we didn't lose more jets.
Watched this with my parents. They figured id like it cause i like ww2 stuff. I was like 5. Seeing them burned in the blast. seeing their mangled burned bodies. I had nightmares. I still get anxiety seeing it for the first time in like 20 years.
I read the book and this was a pretty good movie. I kinda vaguely remember this happening but I was a little kid. I always wanted to serve on a battleship until I saw this movie and researched other battleships. The whole event and subsequent cover-up made me extremely angry, but that is an understatement. What made me angry is the complete cover up and the whole cya that the navy perpetuated to cover up the incompetence of their supposedly brilliant officers. Hartwig and his bestfriend get railroaded for adhering to an age old custom among the enlisted men to make their friends beneficiaries to their life insurance. I hope that all that died in this complete cluster fuck are resting in peace. I hope the rest of the survivors are doing well. I hope that P.O.S. chief gunnery officer is haunted by the consequences of his incompetence and his greed every second of the rest of his life.
thank you for posting this remarkable documentary - it shows the decline already years in place. Unfortunately, many innocents die as a result of the elites. God Bless Sir.
No Marines were killed in the turret explosion. They did have their very own 5"/38 gun mount on the ship. The Marines were very active helping to carry out the remains of our shipmates in body bags.
I can't prove it but I was told the USS New Jerjsey was off the coast of the Vietnam DMZ in "68. We called for air support to supress fire across from us in the A Shau Valley. LOUDEST EXPLOSION I ever heard. Our LT said it was the New Jersey off the coast supporting us. Battleships are awesome. viewed in San Diego, California USA
U.S.S. Indianapolis - the Navy kept a full record of schedule ships' departures but NO-ONE considered estimated time/date of return - hence a complete cluster-fu^k 'rescue' mission. Just blame the captain. 'Nuff said.
Except for one scene in the movie, notice that Petty Officer 1st Class Mortensen has red chevrons on his dress uniform and weather jacket. That means that at one point in time he was sent to Captain's Mast. Those without disciplinary action have black chevrons on their dress whites, and gold ones on their dress blues. I myself was one of those petty officers who was sent to Captain's Mast on several articles of the UCMJ, one of which I disputed, but it made no difference in the end and therefore my chevrons went from gold and black to red. No good cookie for me. The details of this movie are remarkable.
@@michaelcraig4710 the Navy’s changed quite a bit since the 80’s, from uniform to policy to awards. When I was in from 2015-2019 I believe it was 3 years of good conduct at your command and you got one. I could be wrong though because I never did get it. One enlistment was all I wanted to do in any case.
If stored PROPERLY it would have been fine. The powder used in the shoot that day had been stored for 13 days if memory serves me right on non climate controlled barges on the James river in the middle of summer, cooking it in 100 degree plus heat.
@@Bellthorian I read the same in the Virginia Pilot shortly after the explosion. The C.O. of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown SHOULD have been held responsible! I've often wondered who it was and HOW he deflected any blame. I am a former IOWA crewman, 1985-1987.
Bit late,but as a father whose son just finished basic nz navy,and they just sunk their biggest ship. After what I saw at the graduation,god help nz because the woke navy won’t. They elected the smallest girl as the top cadet,my daughter and I thought it was a sea scout or a mascot.if you try to tell me that a 4.7” 17 year old girl can beat a 19 year old 6.4” boy physically,in all aspects of physical training.then let’s open the fucking Olympic Games to one gender.beggars belief how fucked our navy officers are.SHAMEONYOU my dead relatives didn’t fight in every damn war we entered for this .the nz navy are a embarrassment to all sailors..
I know the filmmakers couldn't get the Iowa class battleship to film so they made a filmset of the ship the turrets were shaped like cruisers as 16 inch turret
Tell that to Master Chief Petty Officer Stephen Skelley on the latter. As for the former, it's very hard to justify pulling out the old Iowa Class just to battle it out one-on-one with the Soviet Kirov Class cruiser.
@@raymondyee2008 if your going to the expense of recomming them then do it all the way make new powder, hell its still cheaper then an congressman's bribe
Well, this movie gets some things wrong( example-Mortensen had a moustache) but it REALLY gets it wrong by trying to potray Hartwig as having "homosexual" tendencies, I understand they were trying to present plausible traits, but c'mon! The Navy REALLY slandered this proud Sailor's name, the producers of this movie are just as bad for their attempts at making him seem homosexual. Typical Hollywood B. S.. if you're going to make a historically accurate movie be factual, not farcical.
Well, facts are the Navy didnt care about gun safety or the safety of the crew, so an accident happened, and it was 100% the Navy´s fault which they will NEVER admit
This story was reported in the British press as a quarrel between two homosexuals American sailors, where one decided he was going to kill the other, so where did they get that from. The military will hang out junior rates to cover the backsides of senior officers and or the service involved.
I seem to recall seeing on the news the IOWA coming into Port with turret 2 still in the same position as when the explosion occurred, not fully repositioned as depicted in this movie.
@@vipvip-tf9rw It wasn't just that, there was no power to the turret so the only wat to move it would be to hand crank it. It was unclear as to the stability of the guns and potentially moving them could cause them to slip out of the cradles and fall into the turret.
And the only one to cover this embarrassing incident. I saw someone on YT before blasting this before the account got deleted and he referenced some scenes from this movie.
@@PeterWTaylor first couple of mins I'm in window top left while sailors are loading big gun.also carrying body bags.and on bridge when announcement goes out.
we once fired our guns so much that the paint peeled off from the barrel. had to use that procedure of putting a hose down the barrel to cool the gun. we had 3 gun mounts and this happened to the gun mount on the port forward side.
I can attest to the procedure sometimes adopted, by military enquiries, that will in eventuality result in creating a clean image for whichever branch of of service involved. The methods used to create that result could at times, be regarded as unsavoury.
I can attest to the New jersey being in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1968. I watched her trailing us when I was on the USS America(CVA-66) ON OUR LAST TOUR ON LINE
Hey! I had a TAD on the America, in fact it was my first deployment. I am a Plankowner on the Lincoln and while she was being built they sent a lot of us out on training duties, and 66 was my first. What a great ship! Old, dirty, smoky, and I LOVED it!
He referred to them several times as "soldiers"... they are sailors, not soldiers. I would appreciate they remake the movie and use the correct terms, thank you. I'll wait.
Umm...not really. Iowa fired 27 nautical miles ACCURATELY while in the Caribbean. They stated at that time, that it was the longest shot in battleship history.
Yamato's 19.65 mile "hit" on the White Plains indeed stands as the longest "hit" in combat from a battleship. The shell struck near White Plains, detonating under the keel in the battle off Samar.
So what did Musashi hit? Iowa hit a retired school bus at 27 miles/50000+ yards. It may have been a stationary target, but that's still the longest shot, and a much smaller target. The longest shots in combat at moving targets that resulted in direct hits and damage were recorded by Scharnhorst and Warspite, 26000 yards each.
@@danielburdette6648 they hit nothing they wasnt even on the ship, they was on the test range on a island near japan after completion and they recorded the longest shell ever fired, this is after the americans had got the data after surrender, how to you think the telemetry computer system works so its sister ship could make that hit, TESTING with all kinds of sensors, read about it, instead of arguing with me, its in a few books that i cant recall at the mo, anyway my dinner is ready...oh and this was a one off due to they calabrated with that much use of powder would be needing a new barrel through ware every 15 shots or so?, and more powder would have likely splintered the barrel...
didnt they have the PMS maintenance for the guns on this ship? this system would of found all the flaws, but i guess the capt or xo were not reading the reports
There were mechanical issues with the breach ram (fact not brought out in this movie). I would on occasion travel farther into the breach than it was set to do. This combined with the unstable gun powder was the most likely cause of the explosion.
I did 30 years active duty from E-1 to CWO4. The gross inaccuracy's from the start, stopped watching at 30 min. The total misrepresentation of Officer to Enlisted relations and their interactions almost made me puke. There are none of these interactions portrayed ever happened. Ever. If youve served in the US Navy I advise you not to watch. Total Science Fiction.
they were the most useless weapons ever invented when they bombarded a Japanese island before sending the marines the Japanese went into hiding below ground or in caves they did create a lot of potholes all over but did hardly anything to the defenders - when the bombardment stopped the defenders came out got all their guns ready to mow the incoming Marines - on the other, the aircraft from the carriers would deliver a more accurate kill on called in target - also the tactic of invading in broad daylight seemed to be the most stupied doctrine ever were by a night landing in several dozen spots would have less casualties on the marines since bad visibility worked in their favor and any defender opening fire will expose his position in seconds - back then its seem stupidity of to leadership was the norm and wasting marines was the norm
Are you military tactician? Were you serving on a battleship in your career? What makes them "useless" weapons? Seemed to kick the shit out of other ships, so seem pretty damned "useful" in their intended construction.
I was aboard Iowa the day of the explosion. I was a Damage Controlman 2nd Class (DC2) and had been aboard since March 1987. I had breakfast with half the gun crew that morning. I knew most of the guys killed. A few of them I actually considered close friends, including Morrison and Helton, who were my bowling team partners on the ship's bowling league. I really haven't gone bowling since, maybe twice back in the 1990s. I just can't bowl anymore, always looking around for those guys, but knowing they are long gone. This movie and the book are both a crock of BS! It really makes the crew look bad, and we were anything but! The majority of battleship Iowa veterans who were there have also opened up and voiced their disgust with the book and movie. For example, I was involved in firefighting, dewatering, and removing remains, especially from the powder flats in the bottom of the turret on the lowest deck. They portrayed those guys as still intact with their dungarees intact. I can tell you after all these years now, that EVERYONE in that part of the turret were flash burned, their clothes all burned off. I won't go into much detail. Just imagine seeing a bunch of clotheless, hairless mannekins around with only a belt and boots on, and you can somewhat paint a picture. The fireball was so intense, moving so fast, that whatever position these guys were in in that second, is basically how we found them. That has been my continued nightmares to this day. One guy was still kneeling, holding a fire nozzle in one hand with his hand over the bail, as if waiting to turn on the water that never came until the turret sprinklers were activated. Another guy was still sitting, looking up the powder hoist, still wearing a set of sound-powered phones with his hand over the microphone part, finger over the button to talk. Yeah, neither the book nor the movie did any justice to what all really happened!
Indeed.....Hollywood does spice up true stories to bring in the $. I imagine that they were avoiding age restrictions regarding the remains in the turret scenes. The Turret Explosion could have been much worse if not for the efforts of Damage control and decisions made to prevent the other powder bags/shells etc from cooking off....IE full magazine explosion. This event is right up there with USS Forrestals tragic explosion/fire RIP all whom were lost, My sympathies to their families and friends....but also to the sailors who collected their remains - 😢 such as yourself, haunting is apt. TY for your service o7
But what exactly do you criticize on the book ?
@@andreasschmidt2739 Quite a bit. The writer only interviewed a handful of the crew. Some of that information was more opinionated than factual. I didn't read all the book because just several pages into it, the madder I got and knew from being there that it in no way was honoring the memories of our 47 shipmates. In the movie, there was a bunch of crap, too. Cracking open beers and sharing them with the gun crew? Very highly unlikely. The only time we were allowed beer onboard was when we were out to sea for more than 3 months without hitting a port. Then, each crewmember was allowed 2 beers. Now, some guys didn't drink, so they sold their beers to other shipmates (my chief got a bit tanked by buying quite a few of those from other guys). Really, there should have been more crewmember interviews and better "investigative reporting" done before that book was ever published. This was just a writer trying to make a name for himself, no matter who it hurt and no matter whether it was accurate or only partly so. The most accurate investigation as to the cause was conducted by Sandia Laboratories. The most likely cause was the proven high speed overram of powder bags compressed against the projectile. I personally talked to several of my Gunners Mate friends from the other turrets. As they knew all the other Gunners, one thing became clear that Charles Thompson III missed out on. We were severely understaffed in the turrets due to some of the crew attending some gunnery school back in the states at the time of the explosion. Therefore, inexperienced crewmembers were assigned turret duty. My friend, GMG3 Heath Stillwagon was reassigned from turret 3 to turret 2 because of the shortage. My very close friends and bowling teammates, LN1 Robert Morrison and LN1 Michael Helton (Legalmen, basically court reporters) were assigned to turret two as punishment for having been found napping during a GQ (General Quarters) drill. Those guys hardly ever slept, really didn't have a "battle station", so I always blamed the XO and Weps officer for their deaths. Another thing that was pointed out was that the rammerman was inexperienced and had only run the rammer before with practice bags, and then with 6 bags, never 5. The fact center gun was behind in loading combined with the fact they were experimenting with a "higher octane/faster burning" gunpowder charge, and the fact that some of the last words were "Center gun a little behind, still loading" led many of us who were there to believe that what most likely happened was, the rammerman was uncomfortable only ramming 5 bags, unsure of how far he needed to push them in, and most likely, knowing the way things worked back then, was probably getting yelled at and being told to hurry up. He may have panicked and just pulled on the rammer too hard and too fast. Not saying he was responsible for the blast, just saying the environment at the time was like a house of cards. There were so many things wrong that it only took one mistake to set it off. I believe Captain Moosally was oblivious to the overall problems in the turrets due to a breakdown in communication within the chain of command. A CO is only as good as the people below him, and if the Weapons Officer wasn't passing crucial information on to the CO, then there's another piece of the puzzle. The new XO we had tended to rule with an iron fist (our previous XO, "Iron Mike" Fahey was, imo, a far better XO who cared about the crew.) I really feel Moosally didn't have a clue as to just how bad things were in Weapons Department. I personally was always writing up and submitting to my LPO deficiencies in the conditions of damage control gear that G2 Division was in charge of. Every division is assigned a DCPO (Damage Control Petty Officer). Truitt was G2's, at least 6 months prior when I worked with him on the turret sprinklers. The biggest issues were with the main deck hatches and passing scuttles for the 16" ammo. Most of them leaked in heavy rains and high seas onto the 2nd deck.
I had stood the 0400-0800 DC Central watch the morning of April 19th, 1989. I received the Oil Lab report which shows how many people are onboard, and I clearly remember, we had around 1340 personnel aboard that day according to the report, give or take, may have been in 1350 or 1330 range, but definitely far shy of the 1500 complement we were supposed to have. I believe that had that Admiral not flown out to visit the Iowa that day, it's possible that they may not have even fired the guns that day, and perhaps we could have avoided this disaster. I had a late breakfast with half of turret two's crew that morning. I can still hear them disgusted as they were ordered to "Now man up all main battery fire control stations". Some had just sat down with their trays to eat when GMGCS Ziegler walked into the starboard side aft mess decks yelling, "All you guys were ordered to your stations! Now get there!" I heard some of them yelling back, "F--- that! We ain't even supposed to be firing these guns on this cruise!" A couple more were, "I'll be down as soon as I eat!" Ziegler yelled back, "Anyone not on their post in 10 minutes is on report!" And that was the last time I saw those guys alive. Like I said, so many things that were wrong. The biggest wrong, of course, was Adm. Milligan's botched investigation and trying to use GMG2 Clayton Hartwig as a scapegoat. Had they not gone in that direction, I feel that we, as a crew, could have healed from what happened. But, because of what the Navy did, many of us have never been able to heal. This book and this movie just opened up painful wounds and stirred up more resentment among those of us who were there.
@@danielburdette6648 i went to sign up for the navy in 83 to serve on an Iowa but the recruiter was honest & said the new jersey was already deployed & the Iowa was a year out , so i joined the us army . with that being said , thank you for your service & i BELIEVE you 100000000%
@@danielburdette6648 in additon to my last comments my friend STEVE grubbs was onboard the iowa during the april 19th explosion & he basically said the same as you ohh and sadly april 19th is my birthday
Thank you for posting. I have known about this movie for quite some time and wanted to see it but I always seemed to miss it. I went to high school with Clayton Hartwig at Mt. Vernon Academy in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. We often had conversations about the Navy vs. Air Force. He was a year ahead of me, while I wouldn't say we were close we were good friends and when I heard of this disaster I knew it was a lie and cover up. Once again thank you for posting and I just wish the Navy would come clean and clear my friends name!!
Fascinating that you actually knew Clayton Hartwig. As a Brit I greatly admired the way this film attempted and for me succeeded in giving a balanced perspective to the events. Of course the UK is no stranger to high level scandals and cover-ups. Unfortunately the instinct of all large organisations is self justification and the people in charge of them are arrogant enough to believe the general public can't see through it all.
He is in Gods care and among brothers- but our lives mission is to support those that actively stop this outrage.
And then 30 years later, the Navy tried to do the same thing to Seaman Recruit Ryan Mays after the Bohomme Richard fire.
The lesson, don't let "Top Gun" be the reason your son or daughter takes the fall for a naval disaster...
The explosion itself was pretty low quality but holy shit they didn't skimp on the corpses.
Yeah, the upper part of the turret (gun house) was like that, but we kind of expected to see the worst horrors possible from seeing the outside of the turret and the charred paint and teakwood deck outside the turret. I personally was on the 0-1 level port side right behind turret two and felt something hard under my boot. I looked down and picked it up and realized I had a piece about 3 or 4 inches long of someone's jawbone with the gun and 3 molars still in it. I knew it was really bad at that point. Also, I found coins (nickels and quarters) that washed out of the turret that were bent and had the president's faces melted off. I can never forget that day or my shipmates, both those we lost and the ones who were left to clean up the mess. We are a tight knit group.
The Navy shafted Clay the same way they shafted Captain McVay of USS Indionapolis
Captain Moosally got a bad rap as well. I loved that CO. He was always good to the crew, and despite how Hollywood portrayed him, he was a good man (and still is as far as I know).
As a Navy Veteran, I can't say that I liked this movie, it's not that kind of movie, you don't watch something like this to be entertained.
I do believe that in as much as any Hollywood movie can, it did its best to tell the truth about the tragic events on that day.
A very telling scene at the end of the movie, when Truitt, reported to his new duty station spoke volumes as to how the Navy in particular, and the Military in general works.
For the rest of his Naval enlistment, no matter how spotless his record going forward might be. Truitt had a mark on his record. Everything he did after that was seen through that mark.
Make no mistake, the Navy, or rather the Armed Forces, never make mistakes, they never make errors in judgment, ever.
For any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, to admit to making a mistake, or an error in judgment, is tantamount to showing weakness in the face of the enemy. And as such will not be tolerated.
I think you'd enjoy. "Too Young the Hero" where Ricky Schroder played a 12yo who got into the Navy. He was finally given his awards, but no benefits after that.
& thank you for your service.🇺🇸😺😺😷🇺🇸
This is not a hollywood movie, it's a relatively low budget TV movie. The weird part is, just a year later in 2002 came out K-19 Widowmaker with $90 million budget, why not spend that money publicizing some of countless US navy's accidents like this one and highlight their heroism and showing that US officers can also be sometimes negligent?
This looks really suspicious from a foreigner's point of view, it really seems like an officer wearing stars and stripes can never be wrong in Hollywood... and then I read about US military supporting movie makers in exchange of right of final cut. In other words, if military doesn't like it, they will force you to change you, or it won't come out.
So read your comment, Absolutely right the military will never admit they exercised bad judgement. I remember seeing this first hand with the Air Force more then once. On a cold -40 F night in Alaska in the middle of a frigging white out we were flying NVG sorties and lost a jet. Now it's hard enough driving in a white out, try flying in one with instrument failure specifically the ADI or aircraft direction indicator this is the gizmo that tells the pilot which way the jet is pointed and whether they are flying level or are inverted. Of course the accident investigation board called it instrument failure which caused the pilot to suffer from spacial disorientation . However if we had not been training in weather we wouldn't conduct real world missions in then pilot would still be alive today. We would never have flown a CAS mission in that type of weather under combat conditions so why were we doing it under peace time training conditions. All the high tech in the world isn't going to be able to pick out targets on the ground under near white out conditions. We should not have been flying that night and it's a miracle we didn't lose more jets.
I knew Kendall Truitt. I worked with him on the turret sprinklers about 6 months before the explosion. He was G-2 division's DCPO.
I remember this, I think it was a 'made for TV' movie, not a feature film.
Watched this with my parents. They figured id like it cause i like ww2 stuff. I was like 5. Seeing them burned in the blast. seeing their mangled burned bodies. I had nightmares. I still get anxiety seeing it for the first time in like 20 years.
I was there and recovered many of the bodies. It was much worse experiencing the real thing, especially when I knew most of those guys.
@@danielburdette6648 Jesus christ....
I read the book and this was a pretty good movie. I kinda vaguely remember this happening but I was a little kid. I always wanted to serve on a battleship until I saw this movie and researched other battleships. The whole event and subsequent cover-up made me extremely angry, but that is an understatement. What made me angry is the complete cover up and the whole cya that the navy perpetuated to cover up the incompetence of their supposedly brilliant officers. Hartwig and his bestfriend get railroaded for adhering to an age old custom among the enlisted men to make their friends beneficiaries to their life insurance. I hope that all that died in this complete cluster fuck are resting in peace. I hope the rest of the survivors are doing well. I hope that P.O.S. chief gunnery officer is haunted by the consequences of his incompetence and his greed every second of the rest of his life.
thank you for posting this remarkable documentary - it shows the decline already years in place. Unfortunately, many innocents die as a result of the elites. God Bless Sir.
From what I have read the Iowa was the lemon of the class from day 1.
02:46 that was a hint that things on the U.S.S Iowa weren’t up to what it was thought to be.
I thought men on a Navy ship are called "sailors", not "soldiers".
They are. It's probably just that some idiot screenplay writer thought 'sailor' wasn't very 'macho', which is what much of this film is about.
Soldiers who serve on a ship are neither?, they're are called marines?,'REF/ duke of york albany's maritime regiment of foot, 28/10/ 1664...
No Marines were killed in the turret explosion. They did have their very own 5"/38 gun mount on the ship. The Marines were very active helping to carry out the remains of our shipmates in body bags.
James Caan in yet another monumental performance. One of our best.
But a shitty script because he had to spit out a lot of incorrect lines and actions.
Not easy finding this movie. Not the finest moment for the battleships of the U.S Navy.
Definitely not one of the finest moments for the Navy in any way.
It's incredible to think that Lt. Dan Meyer changed his name and went to medical school and ended up working with Dr. House at Princeton General.
I can't prove it but I was told the USS New Jerjsey was off the coast of the Vietnam DMZ in "68. We called for air support to supress fire across from us in the A Shau Valley. LOUDEST EXPLOSION I ever heard. Our LT said it was the New Jersey off the coast supporting us. Battleships are awesome. viewed in San Diego, California USA
The navy fucked around and found out but it is sad that it cost lives
U.S.S. Indianapolis - the Navy kept a full record of schedule ships' departures but NO-ONE considered estimated time/date of return - hence a complete cluster-fu^k 'rescue' mission. Just blame the captain. 'Nuff said.
Except for one scene in the movie, notice that Petty Officer 1st Class Mortensen has red chevrons on his dress uniform and weather jacket. That means that at one point in time he was sent to Captain's Mast. Those without disciplinary action have black chevrons on their dress whites, and gold ones on their dress blues. I myself was one of those petty officers who was sent to Captain's Mast on several articles of the UCMJ, one of which I disputed, but it made no difference in the end and therefore my chevrons went from gold and black to red. No good cookie for me. The details of this movie are remarkable.
Good cookie for telling it straight, and that's the main thing.
is'nt 12 yrs.of continous good conduct required perhap's he has'nt been active duty for 12yrs.
@@michaelcraig4710 3 years, at least back when I was in it was 3. It might be different now, but in any case I didn’t make it lol.
@@jebbroham1776 it was 12 years cumulative good conduct in the 1980's.
@@michaelcraig4710 the Navy’s changed quite a bit since the 80’s, from uniform to policy to awards. When I was in from 2015-2019 I believe it was 3 years of good conduct at your command and you got one. I could be wrong though because I never did get it. One enlistment was all I wanted to do in any case.
How long can you reuse WW2 gunpowder in a 16 inch gun? US navy fucked around and found out.
If stored PROPERLY it would have been fine. The powder used in the shoot that day had been stored for 13 days if memory serves me right on non climate controlled barges on the James river in the middle of summer, cooking it in 100 degree plus heat.
@@Bellthorian I read the same in the Virginia Pilot shortly after the explosion. The C.O. of Naval Weapons Station Yorktown SHOULD have been held responsible! I've often wondered who it was and HOW he deflected any blame. I am a former IOWA crewman, 1985-1987.
Bit late,but as a father whose son just finished basic nz navy,and they just sunk their biggest ship.
After what I saw at the graduation,god help nz because the woke navy won’t. They elected the smallest girl as the top cadet,my daughter and I thought it was a sea scout or a mascot.if you try to tell me that a 4.7” 17 year old girl can beat a 19 year old 6.4” boy physically,in all aspects of physical training.then let’s open the fucking Olympic Games to one gender.beggars belief how fucked our navy officers are.SHAMEONYOU my dead relatives didn’t fight in every damn war we entered for this .the nz navy are a embarrassment to all sailors..
I know the filmmakers couldn't get the Iowa class battleship to film so they made a filmset of the ship
the turrets were shaped like cruisers as 16 inch turret
It’s as close as you can get.
You don't recom a battleship & use 40 year old powder 🤦♂️🤦♂️
& no experimental shots
Tell that to Master Chief Petty Officer Stephen Skelley on the latter. As for the former, it's very hard to justify pulling out the old Iowa Class just to battle it out one-on-one with the Soviet Kirov Class cruiser.
@@raymondyee2008 if your going to the expense of recomming them then do it all the way make new powder, hell its still cheaper then an congressman's bribe
Well, this movie gets some things wrong( example-Mortensen had a moustache) but it REALLY gets it wrong by trying to potray Hartwig as having "homosexual" tendencies, I understand they were trying to present plausible traits, but c'mon! The Navy REALLY slandered this proud Sailor's name, the producers of this movie are just as bad for their attempts at making him seem homosexual. Typical Hollywood B. S.. if you're going to make a historically accurate movie be factual, not farcical.
Well, facts are the Navy didnt care about gun safety or the safety of the crew, so an accident happened, and it was 100% the Navy´s fault which they will NEVER admit
@@harrison00xXx new powder when you recom , its common sense
This story was reported in the British press as a quarrel between two homosexuals American sailors, where one decided he was going to kill the other, so where did they get that from. The military will hang out junior rates to cover the backsides of senior officers and or the service involved.
I seem to recall seeing on the news the IOWA coming into Port with turret 2 still in the same position as when the explosion occurred, not fully repositioned as depicted in this movie.
Photos confirm that.
Yep. They tried to get Gunners Mate Dale Mortensen to recenter the turret and he said "Hell no!"
@@danielburdette6648because there was still a shell in turret
@@vipvip-tf9rw eeep!
@@vipvip-tf9rw It wasn't just that, there was no power to the turret so the only wat to move it would be to hand crank it. It was unclear as to the stability of the guns and potentially moving them could cause them to slip out of the cradles and fall into the turret.
It appears senior officers have the exact same mindset as senior corporate executives - "Fu^k you - I'm covering MY arse". Disgusting.
this kind of miss-handling of an investigation and cover up, never would have flown in my day!
This is no Das Boot, but not bad
the admiral asking the question's leading the investigation is richard milligan former commanding officer of uss new jersey bb-62
So?
Great movie
And the only one to cover this embarrassing incident. I saw someone on YT before blasting this before the account got deleted and he referenced some scenes from this movie.
Not a bad movie at all. I'm surprised I hadn't heard about it for the past 20 years.
Not a bad movie at all im in it like 7 times on screen.one scene im standing right beside james cann
@@robertwinters1369 I think I just saw you picking your teeth in a mirror...
@@martyconroy3786 I'm in a bunch of scenes as extra but you didn't see me doing that.
@@robertwinters1369 - How about putting in some time refs so we can see you?
@@PeterWTaylor first couple of mins I'm in window top left while sailors are loading big gun.also carrying body bags.and on bridge when announcement goes out.
we once fired our guns so much that the paint peeled off from the barrel. had to use that procedure of putting a hose down the barrel to cool the gun. we had 3 gun mounts and this happened to the gun mount on the port forward side.
Cool!
I can attest to the procedure sometimes adopted, by military enquiries, that will in eventuality result in creating a clean image for whichever branch of of service involved.
The methods used to create that result could at times, be regarded as unsavoury.
I can attest to the New jersey being in the Gulf of Tonkin in 1968. I watched her trailing us when I was on the USS America(CVA-66) ON OUR LAST TOUR ON LINE
Hey! I had a TAD on the America, in fact it was my first deployment. I am a Plankowner on the Lincoln and while she was being built they sent a lot of us out on training duties, and 66 was my first. What a great ship! Old, dirty, smoky, and I LOVED it!
Success has too many fathers failure is an orphan disaster needs a scapegoat
He referred to them several times as "soldiers"... they are sailors, not soldiers. I would appreciate they remake the movie and use the correct terms, thank you. I'll wait.
Musashi holds the furthest range shell fired from a battleship decades earlier, not iowa...
Umm...not really. Iowa fired 27 nautical miles ACCURATELY while in the Caribbean. They stated at that time, that it was the longest shot in battleship history.
Yamato's 19.65 mile "hit" on the White Plains indeed stands as the longest "hit" in combat from a battleship. The shell struck near White Plains, detonating under the keel in the battle off Samar.
@@danielburdette6648 thats still not the furthest though is it? as it hit something...
So what did Musashi hit? Iowa hit a retired school bus at 27 miles/50000+ yards. It may have been a stationary target, but that's still the longest shot, and a much smaller target. The longest shots in combat at moving targets that resulted in direct hits and damage were recorded by Scharnhorst and Warspite, 26000 yards each.
@@danielburdette6648 they hit nothing they wasnt even on the ship, they was on the test range on a island near japan after completion and they recorded the longest shell ever fired, this is after the americans had got the data after surrender, how to you think the telemetry computer system works so its sister ship could make that hit, TESTING with all kinds of sensors, read about it, instead of arguing with me, its in a few books that i cant recall at the mo, anyway my dinner is ready...oh and this was a one off due to they calabrated with that much use of powder would be needing a new barrel through ware every 15 shots or so?, and more powder would have likely splintered the barrel...
Robert Sean Leonard the thing i do for you😔
at 15:50 chief is correct
didnt they have the PMS maintenance for the guns on this ship? this system would of found all the flaws, but i guess the capt or xo were not reading the reports
The USS Stark FFG-31 story needs to be done by Hollywood. One of the worst days in United States Navy history.
I am ashamed to say I retired from the Navy with 26 years service
Why ashamed? We thank you for your service. My short Navy career made me proud, and I wasn't any where near 26 years. Hold that high, James.
Decent movie...for real...pretty good...
If you want to see the turret 2 explosion part it’s at 20:46 onwards.
Admit to nothing. Deny everything. Make counter accusations.
They said the breach was not closed! Right before the explosion, mechanical failure?
There were mechanical issues with the breach ram (fact not brought out in this movie). I would on occasion travel farther into the breach than it was set to do. This combined with the unstable gun powder was the most likely cause of the explosion.
after the explosion the captain of the ship said "soldiers don't go home in Garbage bags" Neither should Saliors...Obvious script screw up.
I did 30 years active duty from E-1 to CWO4. The gross inaccuracy's from the start, stopped watching at 30 min. The total misrepresentation of Officer to Enlisted relations and their interactions almost made me puke. There are none of these interactions portrayed ever happened. Ever. If youve served in the US Navy I advise you not to watch. Total Science Fiction.
I used to be a soldier in Vietnam. I know nothing about the Navy. I'm going to take YOUR advice.
I was a sailor, but "had" to watch the whole thing because it was like a car crash. (Plankowner CVN72 Greenshirts)
39:39--Missing appropriate collar device.
Lousy movie version on what happened on the Iowa.
Good film.
they were the most useless weapons ever invented when they bombarded a Japanese island before sending the marines the Japanese went into hiding below ground or in caves they did create a lot of potholes all over but did hardly anything to the defenders - when the bombardment stopped the defenders came out got all their guns ready to mow the incoming Marines - on the other, the aircraft from the carriers would deliver a more accurate kill on called in target - also the tactic of invading in broad daylight seemed to be the most stupied doctrine ever were by a night landing in several dozen spots would have less casualties on the marines since bad visibility worked in their favor and any defender opening fire will expose his position in seconds - back then its seem stupidity of to leadership was the norm and wasting marines was the norm
Are you military tactician? Were you serving on a battleship in your career? What makes them "useless" weapons? Seemed to kick the shit out of other ships, so seem pretty damned "useful" in their intended construction.
This did not age well.
no it aged fine actually
the powder bags didnt age well
uncover in officers country
Good Movie, BUT, the Iowa is BB-6, but they showed the Missouri BB-63 at the beginning of the movie. Major blooper!
Battleships are obsolete in 2024. They are no longer built, replaced by aircraft carriers.
What will President Trump do to fix these tragic events?
Served as a CPO in the US Navy from '75-95 this movie is full of BS!!
Viewer discretion advised - Some scenes may be found disturbing
Whaat?
Its a movie!
American propaganda!
this movie appears to be speculating about the CAUSE of the accident, which is problematic. everything else seems to be true to the public record
You call- "ATTENTION-ON-DECK" for the Captain, "NOT" Ten-Hut. Crap movie.
I Caan isn't mosad, he's CIA or both. Khan, a way station in the desert that houses camel trains and camellias.
I had both a camero and caprice.both better than the wife.it sucks but true.
Rubbish movie that's purpose is to make money.