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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993                   TAG: 9304180190
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: HAMPTON                                LENGTH: Short

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USS IOWA BLAST REMEMBEREDI

Family members and friends of sailors killed in an April 1989 blast aboard the USS Iowa held a reunion Saturday to remember the victims on the fourth anniversary of the explosion.

Some family members say they are still trying to cope with their losses and come to terms with the Navy's investigation of the tragedy.

"We're in limbo," said Georgian Davis, whose son, Nathaniel Clifford Jones Jr., died in the explosion at age 21. "I want to know what really happened. If it was an accident, say it was an accident. But we don't have that. We don't have an answer."

The Iowa was on a training cruise off the coast of Puerto Rico when the explosion occurred in one of the World War II-era battleship's 16-inch guns. Forty-seven sailors were killed.

The Navy initially blamed the blast on Clayton M. Hartwig, saying he was suicidal over a failed homosexual relationship with a fellow sailor. The Navy later apologized to his family and admitted there was no proof the sailor did anything wrong.

"It doesn't get any easier," said his mother, Evelyn Hartwig.

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