Was it a "broken arrow" at the Trident
submarine base in Bangor in November that led to the
firing a month later of the Navy leadership overseeing
nuclear weapons there? The code
words used by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the most
severe level of a nuclear weapon mishap reportedly were
invoked Nov. 7 when a Trident I C4 missile was damaged
while being removed from the submarine USS Georgia in
Bangor.
The allegation was raised over the
weekend at a watchdog Web site,
jaghunters.blogspot.com, run by a former Navy
officer, Walt Fitzpatrick of Bremerton. Fitzpatrick has
had a significant beef with the military justice system
for 16 years, which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has
reported previously. Fitzpatrick yesterday said he drew
upon Navy sources for his information about the missile
incident, which has drawn the interest of U.S. Rep. Norm
Dicks.
As the P-I reported in December, the
top leadership of the Strategic Weapons Facility,
Pacific -- responsible for handling intercontinental
ballistic missiles at Bangor -- was sacked on the spot.
Three officers have been reassigned and three enlisted
men face courts-martial on lesser charges.
According to Fitzpatrick, the Nov. 7
incident happened when the missile from tube No. 16 was
hauled up and smacked into an access ladder that had
been left in the tube, slicing a 9-inch hole in the
missile's nose cone.
The
ladder is placed inside the silo after the tube hatch is
opened so a sailor can climb inside to attach a hoist to
lift the intercontinental ballistic missile out of the
tube. After attaching the hoist, the sailor climbs out
and the ladder is to be removed before the missile is
lifted out.
The crew members reportedly took a
break, and when they returned, they began to hoist out
the missile without removing the ladder, damaging the
nose cone. Although there would not have been a nuclear
explosion, a radiation release or non-nuclear explosion
was possible, Fitzpatrick claims.
That
didn't happen, though the base's civilian emergency
services allies yesterday wanted to know more.
Kitsap County Sheriff Steve Boyer said
yesterday that his office was not notified of any
incident involving nuclear-tipped missiles last fall.
Boyer was surprised yesterday when he heard of the
incident from a reporter. He described cooperation with
the Navy as excellent, particularly since the 9/11
terrorist attacks.
Phyllis
Mann, who as director of Kitsap County's Emergency
Management Division works with the Navy and monitors
Navy incidents, said county and state records show no
"broken arrow" was reported as is required. Defense
Department directives require the FBI as lead civilian
agency to be notified, as well as local and state
emergency services.
"Based upon our relationships with the
bases, we would expect to be notified if there was a
public safety health threat," Mann said.
She's not surprised, however. If the
missile was banged up but nothing was released,
reporting of the incident might not be required.
Navy officials here and in Washington,
D.C., refused to discuss the allegations, citing a
strict Defense Department "neither confirm nor deny"
directive concerning nuclear weapons to keep potential
or real enemies guessing.
Regarding
the disciplinary action meted out in December and the
reasons behind it, Pam Sims, spokeswoman for the
Strategic Systems Program in Washington, D.C., that
oversees the strategic weapons units on each coast,
could say little.
"Safety is paramount in everything we
do in the Navy and a primary focus for our leadership at
every level of command," she said.
The neither-confirm-nor-deny policy,
however, handcuffs the Navy from explaining the
incident, and stirred up questions from Dicks and
activists who have been monitoring the base for years.
"We are working with the Navy to see
what may have happened and to see what guidelines they
have" for weapons accidents, said George Behan,
spokesman for Dicks, who sits on key defense committees.
Dicks'
office yesterday contacted Rear Adm. Charles Young, head
of the Strategic Systems Program in the Washington,
D.C., headquarters of the nation's "nuclear Navy."
The issue echoes concerns raised in
January by Glen Milner, 52, a peace activist and member
of Ground Zero, a citizens group that has protested
outside Bangor over the nuclear weapons issue for years
and filed lawsuits over safety concerns.
"What would happen in a missile
loading accident at the wharf?" Milner asked in a letter
to the P-I early this year.
Ground Zero recently won a Freedom of
Information Act lawsuit that showed 53 less severe
"incidents" prior to 1986 involving submarine-launched
missiles. Sixteen were classified as potentially
serious. Even if it's unlikely a nuclear warhead would
be detonated, the potential remains for a plutonium
release or an explosion from the Trident's missile
propellant.
Adding
Fitzpatrick's concerns to his own, Milner said, "What is
most outrageous is that while on Nov. 7 when this ladder
is impaled into this nose cone of this missile, imagine
the sailors not knowing how far in, or whether it would
blow up" creating an instant "dirty" bomb.
"It's shocking that the Navy didn't
reveal anything," he said.
So strict are the Navy's protocols for
handling nuclear weapons that overlooking the smallest
details results in discipline. The accident immediately
shut down the strategic weapons facility. Fitzpatrick
said the unit's failure to pass a subsequent inspection
resulted in the firings.
As the P-I reported in December, Capt.
Keith Lyles, commander of Bangor's strategic weapons
unit was fired on the spot Dec. 19.
Also relieved of duty in what
Fitzpatrick says has been coined the "royal flush" were
Lyle's executive officer, Cmdr. Phillip Jackson, and
Cmdr. Marshall Millett, weapons officer.
Young, the admiral in charge of
strategic systems, cited only a "loss of confidence" as
the reasons. Three enlisted men in the missile handling
team face courts-martial involving less severe alleged
offenses.
Those who could be reached declined to
comment.
Young
replaced Lyles with Capt. Lawrence Lehman. Lehman, who
had led a 40-man inspection of the facility, replaced
Lyles on the spot. The facility reopened after passing
inspection Jan. 9.
Although defense officials are mum on
nuclear weapons, the P-I in April 1998 reported on a
Washington, D.C.-based Natural Resources Defense Council
report that said base closures and realignments meant
Washington state by 2003 could house 1,685 such weapons,
more than any other state and bigger than the nuclear
forces of Great Britain, France or China.
Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, has been a
thorn in the Navy's side for years, trying to clear his
name from a court-martial conviction that fellow
officers and some congressmen say is a case of military
justice gone wrong.
Fitzpatrick was executive officer of
the USS Mars when he received a career-destroying
reprimand in 1988 for failing to properly supervise the
spending of his ship's morale, welfare and recreation
money. The non-governmental funds pay for non-government
gear such as entertainment or recreational equipment for
the crew and are raised through the ship's retail store.
The incident grew out of a terror
attack. Fitzpatrick allowed the money to be used to help
Capt. Mike Nordeen, the ship's commanding officer, when
his brother, Navy Capt. William Nordeen, was murdered in
Greece by terrorists in 1988. Though the ship's crew
voted to use the money to send a contingent to the
funeral, the Navy came down on Fitzpatrick for misusing
the funds.
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky
contributed to this report.
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