European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 20, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday May 20, 1989 the stars and stripes Page 3 saying goodbye Youn children in the East German town of Prenzlau present soviet troops with tiny flans during a rally to say goodbye to the last men of a soviet tank division As they prepared to head Back to the soviet Union. The soviets returned to their own country wednesday As part of the Krem Lin s promised troop reductions in War saw pact countries. A total of 10,001 so Viet troops 4,000 tanks and 137 aircraft Are to be removed from East Germany by the end of 1990. Reports that 2 sailors bought life insurance before blast probed Norfolk. A. A authorities have launched a criminal investigation into a lip that two Crew members of the battleship Iowa had bought lire insurance policies before the explosion that killed 47 sailors a newspaper reported Friday. The virginian Pilot and the Ledger Star of Norfolk reported that Federal authorities arc looking into reports that the crewmen one of whom died in the blast look out life insurance policies More than a year ago naming each other As beneficiaries. Hoth policies were for$50,000, with a double indemnity clause in Case of accidental death the sister of a crewman killed in the Accident said. She identified the beneficiary As one of the 11 men who survived the gun tur ret blast. The woman who spoke on condition of anonymity and asked that her brother s name be withheld As Well said this week that she raised the insurance question with the Navy. Agents from the naval investigative service and the Fri have questioned crewmen this week and have begun analysing evidence recovered from the tur ret the newspaper said. Officials contacted about a possible criminal investigation acknowledged that the naval service and Fui were questioning the beneficiary but would not elaborate. Navy investigators also have Learned that the gun Turret was significantly undermanned and that a number of those working in the Turret lacked required training the newspaper said. Turret no. 2, one of three on the ship had far fewer crewmen assigned than i ther of the other two. Despite recommendations from the Iowa s gunnery officer two months before the april 19 explosion that the numbers be increased. The gun Turret should have had 90 people inside to perform the delicate work of moving Gunpowder and shells according to the ship s Battle Bill which defines the positions that Are to be manned aboard a ship during wartime conditions. Fifty eight Crew members were inside the Turret the Day of the explosion. Normal peacetime ship Manning lev Els arc always less than wartime Man the Navy said thursday. A senior officer said privately that it would be wrong to assume that there is a link Between the explosion and the Man Ning Levels or training Levels of those As signed to the Turret. It would be a disservice to the Cap Tain and to the Crew to infer that they had one of their turrets undermanned said the officer who asked not to be identified. Some Iowa crewmen familiar with the Navy s investigation said a significant number of sailors assigned to Turret no. 2 were inexperienced and had not been qualified in the equipment s use. But some survivors of the explosion pointed out that their Turret was rated the Best of the three on the ship. The Iowa s commanding officer Cape. Fred p. Moosally has said that the Crew of no. 2 Turret was his Best. The explosion occurred during the loading of the Center 16-Inch gun in the no. 2 Turret. The Iowa was preparing for gunnery practice North of puerto Rico at the Lime of the blast. Wei Washington a former sen. George s. Mcgoy yarn says he was haunted for 40 years by the fear which proved unfounded that he had killed an innocent austrian farm family when he jettisoned a Loose explosive from the army bomber he was piloting near the end of world War ii. Mcgovern. The Liberal anti War democratic Candi Date from South Dakota who was soundly Defeated by president Nixon in the 1972 election recalled the Trou bling wartime incident in a lecture thursday night at the National air and space museum. Mcgovern flew 35 combat missions against Indus trial targets in nazi Germany. He was the Pilot of the Dakota Queen a b-24 Liberator bomber with the army s 15lh air Force based in a Rignola Italy. Returning Over Austria to his Home base from a bombing run on March 14, 1945, Mcgovern said his Crew had reported that the plane still carried a live bomb which had been caught in its rack and was Dan gling from the bomb Bay. The Crew finally succeeded in dislodging the bomb before the plane landed Mcgovern said in the pre pared text of his speech. We saw it fall and hit in the Middle of a farmyard just As the clock showed 12 noon he said. The House Bam and other buildings flew in All directions. I envisioned a Young farm family sitting Down for their noon meal blown to pieces. When i landed Back at our base in Italy. I was handed a Cable saying that Eleanor had Given birth to our first child our daughter Ann. The thought went through my mind that we had brought a child into the world and that same Day i had killed someone else s children he said. In 1985, while he was a guest professor at the University of Innsbruck in Austria Mcgovern said he recalled the incident that still continued to haunt me Many years later during a taped interview for an austrian television documentary about world War ii. After the interview was broadcast he said that an elderly austrian Farmer telephoned the to station and said that the farmhouse i had de scribed bombing was saw the bomb coming and sought safety. No one was Hurt. We haled Adolf Hitler he said and if bombing our farmhouse helped in any Way to bring him Down Tell senator Mcgovern we arc grateful so after 40 years i was exonerated from the Inci Dent that had bothered me since world War ii my Mcgovern govern said. Earlier in the War Mcgovern s plane lost two of its four engines during a raid on the Skoda ammunition works at Pilsen Czechoslovakia in december 1944. Despite flames in a third engine the 22-year-old Pilot nursed the crippled plane to a Safe Landing executed on a Short runway on an Island in the Adriatic sea. That feat earned Mcgovern the distinguished flying Cross. Mcgovern 66, is a fellow at the Institute for policy studies a Liberal Washington think tank and lectures frequently on foreign policy and Domestic issues at College campuses. The annual Charles a. Lindbergh memorial lecture which he delivered thursday Cele Brates the aviation Pioneer s historic Solo flight across the Atlantic on May 20-21, 1927. Mcgovern said he proudly supported the . War Effort against Germany and Japan but opposed Ameri can involvement in the Vietnam War which he called the most costly single Blunder in our National history and a War we did not deserve to Mcgovern said soviet president Mikhail s. Gorba Chev s initiatives May enable us to end the cold War and reverse the arms he said he hoped the Bush administration will have the Wisdom imagination and courage to seize on these new opportunities to build our nation and our International role around the new conditions of violent firefight kills 8 palestinians 1 israeli Soldier Halh Oul. Occupied West Bank a eight palestinians and an israeli solider were reported killed Friday in one of the most violent Days in the 17 month Arab uprising. The Soldier died in the first firefight with armed guerrillas during the revolt. The Soldier and three members of a Village guerrilla squad were killed in a sire in the Mountain Village of beit Aula in the occupied West Bank the army said. A lieutenant colonel was seriously wounded and six other troops suffered moderate to Light wounds. In the Gaza strip israeli troops shot and killed five palestinians and wounded at least ii others in two clashes with Stone throwers in refugee Camps in Rajah and Jubal a. Arab Hospital officials said. Eleven other palestinians were wounded in the clash in Rajah which erupted after residents defied orders to stay in their Homes and went out to try to buy food Arab reporters said. They said the Camp has been under curfew for most of the last two weeks. Ten other palestinians were reported wounded in confrontations with troops elsewhere in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Friday s deaths brought to 492 the number of palestinians killed in the uprising against israeli occupation
