The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was preparing to launch attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired a rocket into an aircraft occupied by pilot John McCain. A huge fire ensued, and McCain barely escaped before a 1,000-pound bomb on his plane exploded, causing a chain reaction with other bombs on surrounding planes. The crew struggled for days to extinguish the fires, but, in the end, the tragedy took the lives of 134 men. For thirty-five years, the terrible loss of life has been blamed on the sailors themselves, but this meticulously documented history shows that they were truly the victims and heroes.
mcCain performed a “wet start” that caused the chain of events.
ReplyDeleteNo, he did not. An A-4 was not capable of that, and the exhaust of his AC was over the side, not the deck, even if the AC could do a wet start.
DeleteHow to tell us you're uninformed without telling us you're uninformed.
DeleteAnother pilot, clear across the deck, followed a procedure that was aggravated by sailors pulling weapon safety pins early, which allowed static electricity to launch a Zuni rocket from his weapon load into the line of planes on McCain's side of the deck.
At that point, the disaster that followed was inevitable.
McCain had a lot of faults.
Starting the fire on Forrestal wasn't one of them.
(Perhaps there should have been a conversation about naming an aircraft carrier after a crazy SecDef who committed suicide in the first place. Talk about a self-fulfilling curse.)
And the sailors who fought the fire, including the primary damage control team who were mostly vaporized into molecules in subsequent explosions, as well as the lesser-trained sailors who stepped in afterwards using critically damaged firefighting and damage control gear after that, were absolutely among the most heroic crews who ever sailed an ocean.
Forget unit citations, pretty much that entire crew should have been awarded Silver Stars and better, at minimum. They probably had to reinforce their dungarees after getting their ship back to port, to keep their giant clanking brass balls from ripping their clothes open.
Consult https://www.dcdave.com/article4/021110.html about Forrestal.
Deletethanks for that link, I knew nothing about Forrestal previously.
Deletethe whole "McCain caused the Forrestal disaster" meme blew up when he was running for President, and later when he was voting for unpopular issues (Obamacare, among other things). I voted for him, because the old white guy seemed a better choice.
When he ran for president I was familiar with the man but I looked at his name in wiki and it took over 12 page screen advances to get to the first bit of truth and now the myth all the reality that people will see and believe. Sadly, everyone believes all the lies because, 'well, there they are!!! in writing!!!!! Lincoln said so!!!!
ReplyDeleteAs someone indicated, McCain had many personal faults but the rumor of his "wet start" and the resulting disastrous fire is not one of them. Back in the day, in order to vote AGAINST Nobama, I voted for McCain. They were both potential disasters for our nation, but McCain was (to me) a lesser of two evils.
ReplyDeleteYeah, me too. McCain was personally courageous and literally a hero, but as a senator he was a disaster and nearly as mean spirited as Jimmy Cahtah. Hard call, but on balance he did more damage than good. And beyond question a better man than Obama.
DeleteUSN firefighting training film "Learn or Burn Baby, Learn or Burn!"
ReplyDeletePLAT camera footage is chilling.
And because of that deadly accident all Navy glide bombs on board ship have an insulative coating to delay heat transfer in case of fire.
ReplyDeleteEvery boot in the Navy learns about that at Great Lakes, and WHY the Navy takes the training so seriously.
ReplyDeleteI was a Seabee striker in 1980 and still remember how and what to do somewhat.
In the early sixties, during that fire fighting lecture at Great Lakes, the E-6 Damage Control PO conducting it kept repeating "remember, you're fighting the fire to save your home".
DeleteNemo
I do not know if there is any information about the USS Rupertus in the book but that Captain helped prevent the sinking of the Mighty FID. He kept his fire hoses trained on the fire and kept maneuvering the DD in place for this. One of the greatest acts of seamanship ever recorded. I talked to his son after his fathers passing.
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ReplyDeleteYou may still be able to find the vid from a Deck Camera that recorded the Start of the 'incident'. I never understood where the Lies about McCain's (alleged) Involvement came from.
And this was Not Comparable at All to what happened to CV-13 "Franklin" in WWII. Same Situation, Carrier Planes being Bombed Up for Ground Attack, and an IJN Medium Bomber came in as "Kamikazi" and set it all off. Over half the Crew was Killed or suffered Injuries, and it took several Days to get the Fires out and the Ship underway. All in a Combat Zone with Air Battles every Day. One reason the "Franklin" may have survived was the IJN Recon Pilots reported it as Burning/About to Sink, and no further Attacks were made. You can find the complete Tecnnical Report of the Incident on the USN History Website (sorry, don't have the link handy)
Recalling shipboard firefighting lessons and exercises, primarily - don't wash away the firefighting foam. Every hand aboard ship trained on firefighting equipment. And as noted earlier, fight the fire, fight the ship - for every gallon of water - pumped aboard to fight the fire has to be dewatered - pumped back over the side.
ReplyDeleteI made the Forrestal's last active Med cruise, in 1991.
ReplyDeleteIn the hangar bay was a big plaque with the names of all the men who died in the fire.
Everybody remembers the training film--"Watch the Chief with the purple K fire extinguisher..."
--Tennessee Budd