Word: naval
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Chip Weil, 48, a native of Grand Rapids, has been a loyal TIME reader since he was a student of American literature at Indiana University. As a naval officer based for three years in Asmara, Ethiopia, he usually went through each issue more than once. Before arriving here he had a successful 18-year career with the Gannett newspapers; he was a senior vice president of Gannett and publisher of a ten-newspaper group with headquarters in White Plains, N.Y., and, most recently, publisher and CEO of the Detroit News. "TIME," he says, "has always been an icon...
Even so, neither president sought to gloss over differences on two topics, the Soviets' call for cuts in naval forces and American anger at the continued flow of Soviet weapons to leftist rebels in El Salvador...
...Navy's problems with safety may not all be a matter of preparedness among its crews. TIME has learned that the Naval Investigative Service is looking into whether Scott Aviation, a defense contractor based in Lancaster, N.Y., sold the Navy smoke-protection gear that the company knew did not work as intended. Since 1981 the Navy has purchased more than 450,000 of Scott's Emergency Escape Breathing Devices, hoodlike units that fit over the head and neck to provide breathable air while blocking the entry of toxic fumes. They are now used on virtually all naval vessels except submarines...
...Christopher Duvall, who was chief test engineer at Scott Aviation from 1983 until 1985, has told naval investigators the company tested the device in a way that would not properly measure its ability to protect the wearer. Since human tests of the device could not involve actual toxic gases, the Navy called for testing with salt or vegetable-oil aerosols. Duvall says the company knew the device could scrub out those relatively large particles but not the much smaller molecules of poisonous gases. Scott Aviation did not point this out to the Navy. According to Duvall, when more meaningful tests...
Despite the string of mishaps, experts insist the Navy's safety record has improved in recent years. During the 1960s, naval aviators averaged 15 accidents for every 100,000 hours of flying time. By the mid-1980s, the accident rate had dropped...