Battleship Iowa’s 47 Dead Honored in Tearful Virginia Ceremony

NORFOLK, Va. —  Rifle shots were fired 21 times; the Navy bugler played taps, and a wreath of 47 yellow carnations was cast into the Elizabeth River on Friday in memory of the 47 men who were killed in the explosion aboard the battleship Iowa.

There were few dry eyes among the more than 750 people who gathered on the waterfront with Gov. Gerald L. Baliles and representatives from the eight cities in the Hampton Roads area.

“With this ceremony, we wish to touch hands with our Navy friends and share as best we can their very deep anguish and grief,” Norfolk City Manager James B. Oliver Jr. said to start the brief ceremony, which was organized by the city.

The sailors died Wednesday when an explosion rocked one of the battleship’s huge gun turrets during exercises in the Caribbean.

“There was a time, 45 years or more ago, when this community recoiled from news of death at sea nearly every day,” Baliles told those in the crowd. “The sailors of the United States Navy gave their lives to prevail in war.

“But these are peaceful times, and we’re not used to such tragedy. We do not expect it . . . and it leaves us even more deeply saddened. On the USS Iowa, 47 young men died too soon. That is the fact we face . . . . We accept it, but we will not forget it.”

Mayors or delegates from each of the cities, the Navy and the Chamber of Commerce presented wreaths to honor the dead.

The crowd stood in silence as a Navy-Marine Corps color guard led Baliles and Norfolk Mayor Joseph Leafe in carrying the wreath of yellow carnations from the state onto the pier. As they cast the wreath onto the water, a police honor guard of seven riflemen fired three volleys from a nearby knoll.

When the last echo of the final volley died, a single Navy bugler in dress whites stepped from the crowd lining a portico above the gathering.

Over the strains of taps, sobs could be heard from those in the crowd.

“These are my shipmates in disaster and distress,” said Jim Smith of Norfolk, who attended the service. The 63-year-old Smith, a vice president of Branch 5 of the Fleet Reserve Assn., was one of many veterans in the crowd.

“I served aboard the battleship North Carolina in 1946. I know about those big guns. At times like this, everyone seems to pull together; we become one family,” he said.

With the end of the ceremony, the Navy began planning services for the Iowa’s crew and families at the Norfolk Naval Station, tentatively set for Monday morning. President Bush is expected to attend.

Bush on Friday ordered all flags to be flown at half staff in memory of the dead. Flags in the Hampton Roads area have been at half staff since the explosion.

Meanwhile, the Senate Armed Services Committee announced Friday in Washington that it will hold hearings on the Iowa explosion, including looking at whether the United States should continue to use the 16-inch guns aboard its four refurbished World War II-era battleships.

In a joint statement, Sens. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) and John W. Warner (R-Va.) said the hearings will begin as soon as the work of the Navy board of inquiry, now under way, had been reviewed by the secretary of defense.