NAVY'S HUSHED-UP TRAGEDY AT WEST LOCH

Sea Classics, Nov 2005 by Oliver, A Alan

Wasting no time, a Naval Board of Inquiry was mustered at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard the next morning. Convening behind closed doors at 0900 hours, R/Adm. John F. Safroth sat in charge of the six member panel as it began to hear the tales of a string of witnesses called to testify. First to speak was injured Lt. (jg) R.W. Thomas, USNR, executive officer ofLST-353, the vessel upon which the first explosion was thought to have occurred. One eardrum painfully broken by the blast, Thomas clearly still suffered great discomfort as he proceeded with his invaluable testimony. Somberly, Thomas reported that he and the captain were on the LSTs bridge observing LST-179 attempting to leave its berth beside them outboard of Tare 8. The explosion injured both officers, knocking them down; the ship immediately wreathed in raging flames and plumes of thick smoke. Staggering to their feet, the captain rushed over to adjacent LST-39 on the opposite side, hoping to muster a firefighting effort. He found none and realized that vessel was drifting away, its lines severed from the bollards. Meanwhile, Thomas found three enlisted men huddled on LST-353's fantail.

When asked about events preceding the explosion, Thomas testified that Army personnel were unloading mortar ammunition from the LCT already shackled aboard LST-353. A truck was standing by on the elevator at the main deck level ready to shift the ammunition to a waiting 50-ft LCM for shipment back to the Depot magazine. The Court's next question raised eyebrows when Thomas readily admitted that 80 drums of high-octane fuel were stored on deck 15-ft from the LST's elevator. Asked if this seemingly dangerous practice was unusual, Thomas replied that most LSTs were forced to be loaded in this manner because of space restrictions. When queried if he actually witnessed the first explosion, Thomas declared he was facing aft with his back to the detonation on the bow when it occurred a few minutes later. Testimony completed, a still wobbly Thomas was thanked and dismissed.

The next witness, Navy coxswain Robert F. Sullivan, USNR, testified that he was at the protected helm of the 50-ft LCM which had carried the truck unloading the LCT aboard LST-353. His LCM was about 75-ft away from the LST's lowered bow ramp when the explosion occurred well forward on LST-353's upper deck. The force of the bright crimson blast went up and over the bobbing LCM; its shock wave smashing the tiny craft, but otherwise doing only minor damage. Swinging the LCM's bow around, Sullivan departed the area as the second and third explosions detonated behind him.

The third eyewitness offered a crucial and highly critical report to the Court. He was L/Cmdr. Joseph B. Hoyt, USNR, Commander of LST Group 39, Flotilla 13. In his cabin aboard flotilla flagship LST-225 - second innermost of the vessels moored at Tare 8 - Hoyt reported that he had difficulty leaving the wheelhouse because its door was jammed by the impact of the first explosion. When Hoyt finally reached the conning station via exterior ladders, he found a storm of fiery debris raining down on the ship; fires already broken out on LST-225's decks as well as on the LSTs adjoining it. The signal blinker's light and lens had been blown out, and all antennas torn away leaving no way for Hoyt to communicate with anyone, except by waving his arms. Through the smoke he saw men running everywhere, observing some of LST-225's crewmen attempt to rig hoses to knock down the dozens of small fires already torching its decks. Realizing they needed foam or chemicals to fight gasohne-fed flames, the men abandoned the hoses and disappeared in the swirling smoke.