Stark Ship

Republican congressional leaders, fearing political fallout from any deeper U.S. involvement in the Iran-Iraq war zone, on Thursday pressed President Reagan to justify his policy and seek support and assistance from Japan, West Germany and other allies. Reagan, meeting GOP leaders at the White House, replied that "vital United States interests" in the oil-rich Persian Gulf make it "essential for us to maintain the naval presence," reporters were told.

Iraq has told U.S. investigators that its pilot claims he did not hear any warnings from the frigate Stark before firing two Exocet missiles at the frigate, members of Congress were told by Pentagon officials Thursday. Rep. Bill Nichols (D-Ala.

A frigate of the Stark class failed a test last week to defend itself against sea-skimming missiles like the Exocet that damaged the Stark on May 17 and killed 37 sailors, Administration sources said Wednesday. In an exercise involving several classes of ships in the Caribbean-Puerto Rican operations area, the frigate failed several times to detect and defend with complete success against drones simulating the Exocet missile, said the sources, who requested anonymity.

A Liberian-registered oil tanker hit a mine Wednesday near the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Kuwait, in the same general area where U.S. warships may soon begin escorting commercial ships. No injuries were reported on board the tanker, the Primrose, which is operated by Japanese. It had just taken on a cargo of Kuwaiti crude oil when it hit the mine about 20 miles offshore. Shipping executives described the damage from the explosion as minor. The Primrose returned to Kuwait for inspection.

Americans investigating the Iraqi attack on the U.S. frigate Stark met with Iraqi defense and government officials Tuesday, but there was no word on whether they would be allowed to see the pilot who fired the missiles. A diplomatic source said "everything seems to be going well" in the joint investigation of the May 17 attack in the Persian Gulf, which killed 37 American sailors on the guided-missile frigate and wounded 21.

With barely a week to go until the United States begins protecting Kuwaiti oil tankers plying the troubled Persian Gulf, the White House still was uncertain Tuesday how the delicate job will be accomplished. One White House official directly contradicted a statement made only Sunday by Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, who indicated that the U.S. military presence in the war-torn region will have to be increased by adding aerial support.

Sailors in dress whites, their slow steps measured by the beat of funeral drums, bore the bodies of the frigate Stark's dead from the cargo plane that brought them home Tuesday to a somber memorial ceremony in a cavernous airplane hangar. The 37 men who died in an attack by an Iraqi warplane in the Persian Gulf were honored in a 15-minute ceremony before the bodies were taken away to be prepared for burial. Heavy gray clouds hung leaden over the base that traditionally receives the bodies of U.

A C-141 transport plane carrying the remains of 36 sailors killed in the Iraqi attack on the Stark is expected to land today at the U.S. Air Force base here, site of the largest mortuary east of the Mississippi. The plane was expected to touch down about 5 a.m. PDT on a flight from the Rhein-Main Air Base in West Germany, a spokesman said. Thirty-seven sailors were killed in the May 17 attack on the Stark in the Persian Gulf. The body of one victim has not yet been recovered.

Sen. Jim Sasser, on a fact-finding mission to the area of the devastating Iraqi attack on the guided-missile frigate Stark, said Monday that "the United States will not tolerate any armed attack on American ships by any nation." The Tennessee Democrat's remarks were clearly aimed at Iraq and Iran, belligerents in the Persian Gulf War, now nearly seven years old. An Iraqi missile strike May 17 killed 37 American sailors on the U.S. Navy warship.

With parades, prayers and the playing of taps, Americans honored their war dead on a Memorial Day made freshly somber by the painful memory of the 37 sailors killed on the U.S. frigate Stark. About 5,000 veterans joined family and friends of dead servicemen at Arlington National Cemetery, where a ceremony honored the Stark crewmen killed on May 17, when an Iraqi warplane attacked the Navy frigate in the Persian Gulf. Surrounded by rows of headstones marking the graves of nearly 200,000 U.S.