Evening star., 1925-12-03
Many Witnesses Still to Be
Called by Prosecution
and by Defense.
ROSENDAHL DEFENDS
SHENANDOAH CHANGES
Declares Curtailing of Gas Valves
Had Nothing to Do With Crash.
Reid and Gullion in Spat.

general court martial trying Col.
William Mitchell will be brought TO
close not later than the 10th of
this month. il was forecast today by
both the prosecution and defense, who
expect to close up their rebuttal and
surrehuttal by that time. If the
present indications, which both counsel
believe in. hold true. the court will
close to consider findings seven weeks
from the day of it's orga nization.
Mai Allen W GuIlion. in charge of
prosecuting the naval angle Of the
ca Sc. plans to dispose of all his Wit
nesses ny tomorrow evening and then
the War Department side Will be
brought in under the direction of Maj.
Francis 3. Wilby of the general stan.
who has numerous Army officers OF
high rank in rea diness to testify. Un'
der n ruling Of the court several days
ago. Col Mitchell is allowed sur
rehuttal testimony. but it is under
stood the number of witnesses for the
defense this time will be small
The prosecution today continued It's
presentation of rebuttal testimony
Cainst Col Mitchells statements on
the cause of the Shenandoah disaster.
1t recalled to the stand Lieut.. Comdr.
charles T. RoSendahl. senior surViV.
ing officer. who was testifying yester-
day afternoon when recess was taken.
Blames SquaIl in Crash.
The witness stoutly maintained
under direct examination that the
shin was DESTROYED by aerodynamic
stresses imposed upon IL by the YER
tical forces of the squal, and the
-as had nothing TO do with il.
On this same point. under cross
examination by Representative Frank
r. Reid. the officer could not state
positively II the hand unanswered
valves had functioned efficiently. eX-
planning the only way this could have
been determined was to have been
there at the time. He declared il was
the intention Of the Shenandoah off,
GERS who ordered the reduction OF
automatic valves from Is to TO
operate the hand valves whenever
necessary. During the battle with
the storm over Ohio, he said. the au-
tomato valves had not taken care of
sufficient helium escape. and for that
reason the hand operated ones were
opened for five minutes. This move
materially aided in checking the ra pic
ascent of the ship. the witness said.
Although Comdr. Rosendahls testi-
mony previously had been given to
the story of the disaster had been told
several times both before that body
and the court martial nevertheless
the report of the accident he submit
ted TO the Navy Department and
which he read on the stand created
unusual interest and attention. The
prosecution had been reluctant to
have the witness read the report.
owing to the existence of several
3
explained in some detail, but the de-
fense insisted
Defends Absence of Parachute
Comdr Rosendahl defended the alb
Sence of paraChuteS on the ship. de-
: clarinE they would seriously interfere
with the duties Of the crew if worn
While climbing about the diricible.
On cross-examination Mr.. Reid got
the witness TO explain l hour and 10
minutes had elapsed between the time
the situation became dangerous and
the time he landed in a section of the
craft.
Was it possible to put a parachute
on in that time?" he asked, and the
witness replied
Yes"
The prosecution plans TO devote
the remainder of the day to the Shen-
andoah question by producing further
witnesses TO refute the Mitchell
charges on the disaster.
The only fiare-up at today's session
occurred when Maj. Gullion protested
to the court at Mr.. Reid's attempts
to put technical questions TO the wit
ness when he himself is ignorant of
the subject being discussed. Mr..
, Reid replied:
Il am no more ignorant of tech
nical subjects than Maj. Gullion is
{ ignorant about this whole case
Maj. Gullion joined in the laughter.
Upholds Mooring Mast.
Lieut. Comdr. Rosendahl explained
further the functions of the moorinS
mast and hangar on taking the stand
! this morning. He likened the hangar
to a garage and the mast to a parking
! place. and declared it was only nat
ural that dirigible would be safer in
its hangar than exposed to the wind.
; He declared ii was hazardous to at
tempt to put the airship into its han
gar while transverse winds are blow
ing, but said this would not interfere
with moorinG it to a mast unless the
! wind became excessive. He contended
! that mooring masts are the most eff
cient method known for anchorinS
3 airships.
/ The questioning then turned to the
/ fatal flight of the Shenando Lieut..
Comdr Rosendahl was third in com
mand of the ship on that trip, and is
/ senior surviving officer. The prosecu-
/ tion produced a report on the Shenan-
doah crash sent to Secretary Wilbur
| by Comdr. Rosendahl. Maj. Gullton
started to permit the witness 10 tell
the story of the tragedy by refresh
ing his memory from this report, but
there was immediate objection from
/ Mr.. Reid. A brief tilt ensued. and
the court finally ruled that the wit
( ness should tell his story without ref
erence to the report except when his
| memory failed him.
| Reads Report of Crash.
| The witness began by describing the
! thunderstorm which lay astern Of the
| ship at the time he came on duty,
$50 am, the day of the crash. He
started to narrate further events, but
was interrupted when Maj. Gullion
suggested that he read the report in
full Mr. Reid said he had no objec.
! ton TO the entire report being put into
the record. The report, comprising II
! closely written pages, gave graphic
| first-hand description of the fatal
| flight of the Shenandoah. beginning