COLUMBIA LOST
Investigator in USS Cole blast will lead shuttle probe
By Pauline Jelinek
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A retired Navy admiral who investigated the USS Cole bombing will head the independent probe into the space shuttle Columbia, drawing on the expertise of military and civilian aviation experts.
NASA and a House committee plan their own investigations, and the Senate will hold hearings about why the Columbia disintegrated over Texas on Saturday morning, killing its seven astronauts.
Retired Adm. Harold W. Gehman Jr. yesterday went to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, where the panel was to convene today. Its other members include active duty Air Force and Navy officers, civilian transportation and aviation officials and NASA leaders in engineering and mission safety.
"We're going to find out what led to this, retrace all the events ... and leave absolutely no stone unturned," said NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe.
He described the commission as "an independent objective board" and said Gehman is "well versed in understanding exactly how to look about the forensics in these cases and coming up with the causal effects of what could occur."
The chairman of the House Science Committee, which oversees NASA, said the agency's investigation will focus more on technical aspects. "We have to be concerned about the policy aspects and what is the future of human space flight," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.
Hearings are expected in the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said Sen. Sam Brownback, chairman of the subcommittee on science, technology and space.
"The key issue for us in Congress is why did it happen, how did it happen, how do we fix it and then how do we project on forward with manned space flight," said Brownback, R-Kan.
Gehman, 60, was educated as an industrial engineer. His first tour of duty was as a propulsion assistant and damage control assistant aboard the USS English. He ended his career as commander in chief of U.S. Joint Forces Command, retiring a month before the Cole bombing on Oct. 12, 2000.
"This panel is charged with a most difficult task, but I am confident in their ability, their integrity, and their dedication to doing what's right," O'Keefe said. "Their findings will help push America's space program successfully into the future."
Debris was being brought to Barksdale, where a team from various NASA centers, the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency assembled.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said some of the congressional work will go over some of the same issues reviewed after the 1986 explosion of the shuttle Challenger. Those include NASA's budget, its aging work force and the shuttle fleet.
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• Harold W. Gehman Jr. Education: Pennsylvania State University. Occupation: Retired admiral, U.S. Navy. Career: Naval career included two tours in Vietnam, first as officer-in-charge of a swift-boat unit, then as officer-in-charge of seven swift boats. At sea, he commanded the guided missile destroyer USS Dahlgren; the 6th Fleet flagship USS Belknap, a guided missile cruiser; the rescue and salvage ship USS Conserver; and Cruiser-Destroyer Group 8 with the carrier USS Eisenhower. He held several posts in U.S. Atlantic Command headquarters, including deputy commander in chief, and from 1996-1997 was vice chief of Naval operations. He was commander in chief of U.S. Joint Forces Command from 1997 until his retirement Sept. 5, 2000. He later headed the investigation into the USS Cole bombing of Oct. 12, 2000, in which 17 sailors died. Personal: Wife, Janet; children Katherine and Christopher. Other: As first commander of Joint Forces Command, was given added responsibility of coordinating U.S. military support to civilian agencies in event of attack on U.S. territory by nuclear, biological or chemical weapons. Quotation: "We do believe that this threat is enduring, it's dangerous, people are dying from it, it is not a transitory threat, it's not going away" — Gehman, upon releasing the Cole commission report Jan. 9, 2001. NASA said the other members of the commission, called the Space Shuttle Mishap Interagency Investigation Board, were: • Rear Adm. Stephen Turcotte, commander, U.S. Naval Safety Center, Norfolk, Va. • Maj. Gen. John L. Barry, director, plans and programs, headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio • Maj. Gen. Kenneth W. Hess, commander, Air Force chief of safety, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. • James N. Hallock, aviation safety division chief, Transportation Department. • Steven B. Wallace, director of accident investigation, Federal Aviation Administration. • Brig. Gen. Duane Deal, commander, 21st Space Wing, Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. • G. Scott Hubbard, director at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. • Ex-officio member and former astronaut Bryan D. O'Connor, NASA's associate administrator from the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance. • Panel executive-secretary Theron Bradley Jr., NASA's chief engineer from agency headquarters in Washington.
Columbia panel
Age: 60. Born Oct. 15, 1942, in Norfolk, Va.
