The men have an improbable ally in Scott, a Pensacola, Fla., seventh grader who researched the disaster as a history-fair project and is lobbying for a bill, introduced by Florida Rep. Joe Scarborough and based largely on Scott's findings, to absolve McVay. "I think people are willing to listen to a serious 12-year-old," says Scott, who interviewed 150 survivors and pored over recently declassified papers proving that Navy intelligence knew an enemy sub was present, yet denied McVay's request for an escort. The Navy's refusal to exonerate McVay doesn't surprise retired naval historian Richard A. von Doenhoff, who in 1991 discovered top-secret reports indicating McVay may not have been to blame. "Eight hundred-plus men were lost," he says. "Someone had to be held accountable." McVay never challenged the decision. But his son Kimo, 70, believes he would salute Hunter Scott. "I'll tell you what my father is thinking," he says.' "Well done, young man. Well done.' "
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
