COLLAPSE OF TEXAS TOWER NO. 4 283 



than take the tower back to port. The contractor said he approved 

 the Navy's decision. 



The Navy said the contractor made the decision, but that they 

 approved the contractor's decision. Now, w^iat part did you have 

 in that decision ? 



Mr. KuTLEDGE. Sir, I was on the supply ship, the Steers-M-K in 

 Fall River at this time, or coming out of Fall River with Mr. Steers 

 to get to the site. I had no part in the decision to which you refer. 



Senator Stennis. Did any of the members of your firm have any 

 part in that decision ? 



Mr. RuTLEDGE. Not to my knowledge, sir. 



BKACES TORN LOOSE DURING TOW AND UPENDING 



Senator Stennis. Noav, perhaps everybody has understood except 

 me, but is it true that the braces which were broken in upending 

 were torn entirely loose from the rest of the framework ? 



Mr. RuTLEDGE. Sir, my understanding is, and this is hearsay, that 

 during the tow prior to the upending one of the braces was torn 

 loose and actually came away from the structure and that during the 

 upending process, the other brace was observed to break free of the 

 structure. 



Senator Stennis. Two braces broke free of the structure ? 



Mr. RuTLEDGE. Yes, sir. 



Senator Stennis. Before it was actually upended and put in place. 



Mr. Rutledge. That is what I have understood, sir. 



Senator Stennis. That is what I understood, but I wanted to 

 cover it because there seemed to be a little confusion. 



LOOSE pin connections 



Now, Mr. Kuss, may I refer back to your letter of April 1, 1960. 

 It seems to me that it is very pertinent. In refreshing your recollec- 

 tion, one paragraph reads as follows : 



The loose pin connections are a very serious matter since there seems to be 

 no way of satisfactorily remedying this condition. Furthermore, the condition 

 is one which will tend to worsen at an increasing rate with time. This is be- 

 cause the looseness induces impact stresses in the pins and pin plates which 

 are greater than for the nondynamic design assumptions and will become 

 increasingly greater as the play in the joint enlarges. 



Now, that just somids like a whole lot of commonsense packed into 

 a very few words to me. I know you thought that was correct when 

 you wrote it and you still think so, is that right ? 



Mr. Kuss. Yes, sir. 



Senator Stennis. Now, as I understand it, as to these pin connec- 

 tions which were loose, there was no satisfactory way of getting at 

 that and remedying the condition itself. 



Mr. Kuss. We had not been able to devise any. 



Senator Stennis. Yes. 



Mr. Kuss. I attended a meeting at the Stewart Air Force Base to 

 discuss this thing. They had their engineers present and I had one 

 of mine and we spent the whole day trying to figure some way to fix 

 those pins. We still hadn't given up. We found no way at that time, 

 but we still hadn't given up. 



