doc_text: The scarred battleship USS Iowa made a somber return Sunday to its home port, where about 3,000 family members and friends of the crew welcomed loved ones who escaped an explosion that killed 47 sailors.
  Sailors in whites with black arm bands lined the rails as the huge vessel docked at the Norfolk Naval Base's Pier 5 at 5:41 p.m., just one minute later than Navy officials had estimated.
  Twenty minutes later, families started filing aboard the ship, exchanging tearful embraces with the returning sailors.
  "They wanted to get here on schedule and were anxious to get home," said Capt. Steven Karalekas.
  The explosion Wednesday flashed through the Iowa's No. 2 gun turret, which extends six decks down into the ship.
  There were 11 survivors inside the turret, all on the lowest deck loading powder from the ship's magazines, the Navy said.
  Two of the surviving crewmen of No. 2 turret stood on top of the fire-blackened turret as the ship pulled into the pier, with full crews on the ship's two other turrets, the Navy said.
  The No. 2 turret was in the same position as when the explosion occurred, facing right with the left and right guns elevated.
  The center gun, where the blast occurred, was depressed.
  When the 887-foot vessel first appeared there were scattered cheers by those on the dock, but all remained silent as the ship pulled into the pier.
  The somber mood was heightened by the lack of bands, and few waves were exchanged as the ship docked.
  Adm. Powell Carter, commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, was on the dock to greet the vessel.
  As it docked, three Marines raised a flag to half-mast at the stern of the ship.
  The Navy kept the news media about 300 yards from the families, and reporters were not allowed to talk with the families or the crewmen.
  The violence and power of the turret explosion was shown in an amateur videotape released by the Navy on Sunday.
  The tape was made by an officer on the bridge of the Iowa who wanted to record the firing of the big guns.
  The detonation, which appears to blast away the gasket-like rubber "bloomers" that seal the turret's gun slits, is followed by a jet of intense fire and thick smoke from the front and base of the gunhouse.
  The videotape cut immediately to damage control firefighters spraying heavy streams of water onto the turret.
  Throughout the Norfolk area, churches dedicated prayers Sunday morning to the families of Iowa crewmen.
  "We have lost 47 of our number in a tragic way," said Cmdr.
  John L. Fitzgerald, a chaplain, in a service at the Norfolk Naval Air Station.
  "Our faith helps us to handle what science cannot answer, the mystery of death."
  A red rose, a yellow ribbon with the number 47 on it and a book containing the names of the dead were taken to the altar.
  Fitzgerald said the Iowa tragedy and that of a recently lost Soviet submarine "put political differences aside and unite the human family as one."
  On Monday morning, President Bush will lead a memorial service in a base hangar that can accommodate 3,000 people.
  The families of the victims were invited, but Navy officials said they did not know how many would attend.
  None of the victims listed the Norfolk area as their hometown.
  The explosion occurred during exercises off Puerto Rico.
  The Pentagon said it happened before the middle 16-inch gun of the three-gun turret had been fired.
  The guns, the largest on any ship at sea, use six 110-pound bags of black powder to fire a 2,700-pound projectile up to 23 miles.
  The Navy has refused to speculate on the cause of the explosion, which damaged only the inside of the turret.
  But Navy teams who entered the turret immediately after the blast found the No. 2 gun's breech open and undamaged, with the practice projectile that the gun was to have fired still there, The New York Times reported Sunday.
  This indicated the explosion occurred while the powder bags were still being loaded into the gun, the Times said, citing unidentified sources.
  Navy gunnery officers believe the explosion occurred when the bags were being transferred from a powder hoist to the gun, the newspaper said.
  They said flame and hot gases from the blast went down the hoist to the lowest deck; if the transfer of powder to the guns had been complete, the hoist would have been sealed off.
  The Iowa and its sister ships, the battleships Missouri, New Jersey and Wisconsin, were commissioned during World War II and mothballed after the Korean War.
  They were recommissioned by the Reagan administration in the 1980s.
  Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said Sunday that the administration plans to keep all four battleships in the fleet despite the explosion.
  "They are effective, they were relatively cheap to bring back into the service compared to new ships, they are good cruise missile platforms, so I think they do have a role to play," Cheney said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
  Critics have charged that the battleship's 16-inch guns are antiquated and dangerous; gunners say they are among the most accurate available.
summary_text: About 3,000 people welcomed the USS Iowa back to Norfolk Naval Base Sunday.
  Sailors wearing black arm bands lined the rails of the ship which had an explosion in its No. 2 gun turret Wednesday during exercises near Puerto Rico.
  Forty-seven crewmen died.
  Eleven people inside the turret, all on the lowest deck loading powder from the ship's magazines, survived, the Navy said.
  Two of the 11 survivors stood atop the fire- blackened turret at the docking.
  On Sunday the Navy released a videotape of the explosion which was taken by a crewman who was recording the firing of the big guns.