By Taylor Boyd
Thirty-seven years after an explosion aboard the USS Iowa killed 47 sailors and destroyed its No. 2 gun turret, a Patrick County man who served aboard the battleship still remembers the day clearly.
Lester Harrell said he was a young sailor when the tragedy occurred on April 19, 1989.
“I had only been on board about a month,” he said.
Harrell, now the Peters Creek District representative on the Patrick County School Board, has resigned from the position effective May 31 after taking a job that will require him to relocate.
“I joined the Navy in July 1988. I did boot camp up in Great Lakes outside of Chicago, and my Navy A school was in Virginia Beach. I left there in early March and checked on board the Iowa there in March also,” he said.
In the weeks leading up to the explosion, Harrell said the ship was conducting training exercises in preparation for deployment.
“We were scheduled to deploy for operations in the Mediterranean in June of that year, which we did deploy for,” he said. “We had Vice Adm. Johnson, he was the commander of the Second Fleet, on board during the fleet operations in the Caribbean. I think they were shooting the guns basically to show off for him.”
Harrell said he avoids speculation about the cause of the explosion.
“When you get realistic, I don’t think they ever 100% came up with the real cause of the explosion,” he said. “Most likely, and what was put out there by the investigations, it was an over-ramming of the powder in the No. 2 gun with the breech open. It just kind of caused the friction to cause the bag to spark, and before they could hit the breech to shut it, it went off.”
At the time of the explosion, Harrell said he was stationed above the turret as a lookout for the gun crew.
“There were five levels, so I was standing just about above it,” he said. “When it went off, the smoke, you could feel debris, and you knew right away that what had happened was not a regular shoot.”
“I remember standing up. There was a parapet wall that we were behind, probably about four feet, and when I stood up and looked, the turret was aimed to starboard,” he said. “There were vents that cover the back, and there were flames coming out of the vent, kind of rolling out a little bit and back over top of the turret.”
Following the explosion, Harrell said crew members immediately worked to flood the powder magazines to prevent further detonations.
As general alarms sounded, he returned to his battle station.
“We were battle-stationed for several hours while they fought the fires and flooded the magazines and brought the ship out of danger,” he said. “It was kind of tense for a little while.”
After the ship was secured, Harrell said the next several days were spent recovering the remains of the dead.
Harrell said the sailors were recovered in pieces and flown by helicopter from the USS Kennedy to Roosevelt Roads Naval Station in Puerto Rico.
“They were flown from there to Dover, Delaware, which is usually the entry point for servicemen coming back that are deceased,” he said. “They come through a processing point there in Dover, and they are prepared for burial and all.”
After the explosion, Harrell and his shipmates returned to Norfolk, where a memorial service was held in a hangar near the docks.
“I’m not going to lie, I don’t remember a whole lot. I remember some, but some of that was a big blur,” he said. “I struggled for years with a lot of it, me and my shipmates did and still do.”
Harrell said certain memories remain vivid even decades later.
“I can still remember the smells from it, the feel, the taste,” he said. “One of the biggest things that really stands out is the looks on everyone’s faces as you were going to battle stations. Then the days, about three days, that we took coming back to Norfolk afterwards, it was just so quiet.”
One of the 47 sailors killed is buried in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Harrell said he visits the grave when he can.
“He’s got a beautiful tombstone. It’s got a symbol of the Iowa on it,” he said. “I pay my respects when I can.”
To process the experience, Harrell wrote a book, “Still Standing Watch: A Witness from the USS Iowa,” which details his memories of the disaster.
“It was my therapy, and I shed a lot of tears writing it,” he said.
He said the book also reflects on how the tragedy affected his family.
“When it happened, I think that’s the craziest thing, I never thought about my wife,” he said. “She was staying back here with her mother, and she was pregnant with our first son.”
Harrell said his family first learned of the explosion through early news reports.
“It had come out, and it rolled a thing about an explosion aboard the USS Iowa and unknown casualties, and Momma just lost it,” he said. “She was sitting up there screaming.”
Harrell said early media reports may have been misleading due to the visibility of injured sailors during evacuation.
“They were just covered up in smoke, and to evacuate them we had to move them to the fantail of the ship,” he said. “There were hundreds of sailors back there. I think from the sky it looked like they were injured and dead, so they were reporting hundreds of injuries, but in truth, the only casualties were the 47 dead from the turret itself.”
Every year, Harrell said, survivors and families gather in Norfolk for a reunion aboard base at Iowa Point.
“It took me just about 25 years before I could go,” he said. “It grows every year.”
Harrell estimated more than 300 people attended last year’s gathering.
“That’s families of the dead, shipmates, old ship people who served in Korea prior to,” he said. “It’s just a time of healing and getting together.”
The USS Iowa was decommissioned in October 1990 after 19 years of active service. Harrell was part of the decommissioning team.
The battleship now rests in Los Angeles, where it operates as the USS Iowa Museum.
Harrell said he hopes to return one day.
“My dream is to be able to see the USS Iowa again and walk her decks at least one more time before I go,” he said.
His book is available on Amazon.
