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http://www.glaad.org/media/archive_detail.php?id=304
GLAAD Asks Navy Apology for USS Iowa SlurIn May 1989, "unnamed sources" within the Naval Investigative Services (NIS) leaked to NBC correspondent Fred Francis claims that there was evidence of a murder/ suicide involving a "homosexual relationship" between Gunner's Mate Clayton Hartwig (who was killed in the blast) and Gunner's Mate Kendall Truitt (who survived). In June, Francis reported that Navy investigators were "convinced" that Hartwig was a "troubled homosexual" who was suicidal because other sailors had rejected his advances. In both cases the national media picked up the story, with attribution to NBC. In October 1989, the Navy claimed that the blast was "most probably" intentionally caused by Hartwig.
You left out the part about how overzealous Navy investigators concocted "evidence" to fit this theory, but that it eventually fell apart and the Navy issued a public apology to Hartwig's family.