U.S. Naval Accidents

The headline “Navy Accident Toll Climbs to 102 for ‘89, Highest in Decade� (Part A, Nov. 11) tells of tragedies, some of which could have been avoided. Battleships were the mainstays of World War I, but were obsolete by World War II. Even the recently launched nuclear aircraft carrier is virtually an anachronism, overtaken by sophisticated missiles. The mind-set of the military is such that they kept the horse cavalry right up to World War II. Seems they are always fighting the last war.

The Iowa and three sister ships were de-mothballed to satisfy the egos of President Reagan, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman and assorted admirals. The result: an inaccurate shelling of Beirut, which may have led to the bombing of the Marine barracks and the loss of 241 lives in October, 1983, and the recent explosion in the gun turret on the Iowa that killed 47 sailors. So you have four costly, useless hunks of steel, unnecessarily stretching Navy manpower, bloating our already massive military budget. Who knows how many other weapons and bases, both here and abroad, that are simply there because they support some military fiefdom or some congressman’s campaign chest?

LEN ZIRALDO, West Hills