Ship History 1955-1993 Forrestal departed its home port in Norfolk, Virginia in early June 1967. The training films Learn or Burn (which included film from the flight-deck PLATT camera that filmed the entire Forrestal event) and Trial by Fire: A Carrier Fights for Life have influenced countless firefighting, damage-control, and recruit-training classes. [2] It was the greatest loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II. That means that everything that's visible in the scans above will be visible in the .pdf file as well. Their age and chemical composition actually enhanced the power of the blast (the exact opposite of a Mark 83). TWS is the largest online community of Veterans existing today and is a powerful Veteran locator. The USS Kitty Hawk was an aircraft carrier constructed by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. After completion of the Paypal check-out you will be redirected to the download page. Doing so probably saved some money, but the result in crisis was heroic, but uncoordinated, often ineffective and counter-productive efforts by untrained teams that resulted in needless additional deaths and injuries. Although the fire on the flight deck was controlled within an hour, fires below deck raged until 0400 the next morning. [1] Several men jumped or were blown into the ocean. Many more were wounded but did not report their injuries because of the severity of those of their shipmates. The flight-deck film of the flight operations, titled "Learn or Burn", became mandatory viewing for firefighting trainees. 1967. Planes blaze on the deck of USS Forrestal in July 1967. During welcoming ceremonies, a fire alarm signal alerted crews to a fire in mattresses within the burned-out compartments. Holmes appended a Letter of Reprimand for Captain Beling to the final report, which was removed by direct order of CNO Admiral Thomas Moorer. Members of the military, survivors of the disaster, and family members gathered to memorialize those lost in this incident. Forrestal crew members continued to put out hot spots, clear smoke, and cool hot steel on the 02 and 03 levels. Both pilots initially escaped from the flames around their aircraft. [31] At 11:47, Forrestal reported the flight deck fire was under control. [14][9][pageneeded] Their report concluded that a Zuni rocket on the portside TER-7 on external stores station 2 of F-4B No. Click to view crew list USS Forrestal, named for Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, was the first ship of the new 56,000-ton aircraft carriers built during the 1950's. After being built in Newport News, Virginia, the new ship was formally commissioned in October 1955. (2) 19min 2019 16+. Here you can download the USS FORRESTAL (CVA 59) Vietnam Cruise Book 1967 as a high resolution .pdf file. How the 1967 Fire on USS Forrestal Improved Future U.S. Navy Damage Control ReadinessA Sextant blog post by Hank Stewart, Commander, USN (Retired), Assistant Professor of Engineering, Maine Maritime Academy. It took more than 24 hours for . The USS Forrestal was the United States' first supercarrier, and the largest ever built when it was commissioned in 1955. White. [19]:36, The explosions tore seven holes in the flight deck. Holmes disagreed with many portions of the Navy's report into the Forrestal disaster, including the section clearing Beling. 405, piloted by Lieutenant Commander Fred D. The bomb blasts blew large holes in the flight deck, and flaming fuel poured down into the hangar bay and berthing compartments in the aft end of the ship, accounting for many of the casualties. On 29 July 1967, Forrestal (CVA-59) experienced a severe fire while operating on Yankee Station off Vietnam that killed 134 Sailors and aviators, injured 161, and destroyed 21 aircraft. It could simultaneously carry two 3,000lb (1,360kg) M118 bombs and four 750lb (340kg) M117 bombs. June 6, 1967. [10], The damage control team specializing in on-deck firefighting for Forrestal was Damage Control Team No. As part of the Attack Squadron 163, it was McCain's 23rd . They concluded Beling knew that the Zuni missiles had a history of problems, and he should have made more effort to confirm that the ordnance crew was following procedure in handling the ordnance. The fire on board her, as well as subsequent fires on board two other aircraft carriers, the USS Forrestal (CV-59) in 1967 and USS Enterprise (CVN-65) in 1969, led the Navy to improve training and . The fire killed 134 men and seriously injured 64. [6][47] Many other fire-safety improvements also stemmed from this incident. In 1966, a magnesium flare tossed into an ammunition locker caused rockets to detonate aboard the USS Oriskany, killing forty-four. The ship's four aft 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 guns were removed. On January 16, 2006, WMR reported that according to a US Navy sailor who was aboard the Forrestal on the fateful day of the fire, "McCain and the Forrestal's skipper, Capt. Burning fuel poured through the hole in the deck into occupied berthing compartments below. 8, led by Chief Gerald W. Farrier, were the first responders to any incident on the flight deck. Accidental fires ignited three U.S. aircraft carriers during the Vietnam War, killing 206 American sailors and injuring 631 others. This evaluation is still carried out by the Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board. Trial by Fire: A Carrier Fights for Life. The vessel first saw combat during the Vietnam War and supported the American presence in Vietnam until 1966. The rocket itself actually impacted the ocean beyond both aircraft. On July 29, 1967, the Forrestal was off. VF-11 lost 47 men in the catastrophe. Find USS Saint Paul (CA-73) unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. About 30 minutes later, they had put out the flight deck fires. The Forrestal fire marks the second worst loss of life on a Navy ship after World War II. [1], The board of investigation stated, "Poor and outdated doctrinal and technical documentation of ordnance and aircraft equipment and procedures, evident at all levels of command, was a contributing cause of the accidental rocket firing." Did you serve aboard USS Forrestal (CV 59)? 0:38 On the morning of July 29, 1967, the super carrier USS Forrestal was preparing for a massive airstrike over North Vietnam. This was (and remains) the second worst loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II. "Remarks at USS, Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board, United States Army Command and General Staff College, "Fifty Years Ago: Eyewitness to an Inferno Finds "Blue Eyes", "A U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier's Greatest Fear (And It's Not Russia or China)", "Bud Dougherty Collection: Disaster on the USS Forrestal", "The 1967 Aircraft Carrier Fire That Nearly Killed John McCain", "Rocket causes deadly fire on aircraft carrier Jul 29, 1967", "Forrestal, Navy's 1st 'supercarrier,' changes hands in one-cent transaction", "Material Conditions of Readiness 14325_341", "Personal account of the USS Forrestal fire, July 29, 1967", "USS Forrestal fire commemoration a reminder of 'heroism, service and sacrifice', "The USS Forrestal (CVA-59) fire and munition explosions | The History of Insensitive Munitions", "The Forrestal Fire, July 29, 1967 Ship's Logs", "Forty-five years later, veteran remembers worst naval disaster since WW II", "Electronic Systems Failures and Anomalies Attributed to Electromagnetic Interference", "USS Forrestal Tragedy Remembered 50 Years Later", "50 Year Anniversary USS FORESTALL Fire Memorial Ceremony in Washington D.C.", "USS Forrestal's fallen remembered at Farrier School ceremony", "Trial by Fire: A Carrier Fights for Life", "Sen. John McCain barely escaped death 50 years ago in the USS Forrestal disaster", "Watch Shockwave #1 Full Episode - Shockwave", Virtual Wall: A Memorial to the men who died in the, Did You Know: The terrible fire aboard the USS, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=1967_USS_Forrestal_fire&oldid=1151901658, US Navy Judge Advocate General's Report of 19 September 1967: Fire and Explosions aboard USS, This page was last edited on 26 April 2023, at 23:22. [30][pageneeded] The ninth explosion was attributed to a sympathetic detonation between an AN-M65 and a newer 500-lb M117 H6 bomb that were positioned next to each other. 110 of VF-11, spotted on the extreme starboard quarter of the flight deck, struck A-4 No. 1MC (the shipwide general announcing system) notifying the crew of the fire on the flight deck. You will be able to zoom in to better read names etc. [11]:273274, While preparing for the second sortie of the day, the aft portion of the flight deck was packed wing-to-wing with twelve A-4E Skyhawk, seven F-4B Phantom II, and two Vigilante aircraft. The Impact of the USS Forrestal's 1967 Fire (PDF, 305 KB) Enterprise put in for repairs at Pearl Harbor and continued en route to Vietnam in March 1969, although she was diverted to Korean waters due to the North Korean capture of Pueblo (AGER-2.). Despite Farrier's constant effort to cool the bomb that had fallen to the deck, the casing suddenly split open and the explosive began to burn brightly. Crew members fight a series of fires and explosions on the carrier's after flight deck, in the Gulf of Tonkin, 29 July 1967. Most dangerous of all, several bombs were seen to be leaking liquid paraffin phlegmatizing agent from their seams, an unmistakable sign that the bomb's explosive filler had degenerated with excessive age, and exposure to heat and moisture. At slightly more than 90 seconds into the fire, the bomb exploded. USS Raleigh (LPD-1) suffers an engine room steam accident which kills two sailors. USS FORRESTAL ASSOCIATION Membership Application. On 31 July, Forrestal arrived at Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippines, to undertake repairs sufficient to allow the ship to return to the United States. However, the fires below decks, spread by the burning fuel on water, were much more difficult to put out, with the lastone not extinguished until 0400 the next day. https://youtu.be/mSRnjWACVOc US Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal on fire off the coast of Vietnam, July 29, 1967. As the ship prepared for its second strike of the day, at 1050, everything changed. Vietnam-era Blue Water Navy veterans are considered to be those who served aboard ships in the open waters off the coast of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The USS Forrestal fire remains the Navy's biggest disaster in a combat zone since World War II. Free shipping for many products! The other H6-based bombs performed as designed and either burned on the deck or were jettisoned, but did not detonate under the heat of the fires. Thank you for posting your request on History Hub! Sec/Treasurer USS FORRESTAL CVA/CV/AVT-59 Association, The Nation's First Supercarrier "First In Def USS Forrestal Association Even today the Navy commonly refers to the fire aboard Forrestal, and the lessons learned, when teaching damage control and ammunition safety. Firefighting crews continued to fight fires below deck for many more hours. Apache (ATF-67) Arcadia (AD-23) Archerfish (SS-311) Arco (ARD-29) Arcturus (AF-52) Argonaut (SS-475) Arikara (ATF-98) Asheville (PG-84) Arthur Middleton (AP-55/APA-25) Ascella (AK-137) Ashtabula (AO-51) Askari (ARL-30) Atakapa (ATF-149) Atka (AGB-3) Atlas (ARL-7) Ault (DD-698) Avenge (MSO-423) Avocet (AM-19/AVP-4) Avoyel (ATF-150) Aylwin (DD-355) Click here for more information. In recent years, articles have appeared on the internet that are extremely inaccurate and generally intend to unfairly tarnish the reputation of Senator John S. McCain III, who survived the fire. Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC Although some of these records have been digitized, the ones for the USS Forrestal are not. USS Forrestal Fire Victims Dedicated to the victims of the explosion on the USS Forrestal, which happened on July 29, 1967. After it completed required inspections for the upcoming West Pacific cruise, it sailed to Brazil for a show of force. Fiore, an aviation boatswain's mate (equipment) at the time, said the events that day changed the course of damage control operations in the Navy. John McCain sat on the port side of the Forrestal in his A-4 Skyhawk going through preflight checks. [27][1], The destroyer USSGeorge K. MacKenzie pulled men from the water and directed its fire hoses on the burning ship. If you served in USS Saint Paul (CA-73), Join TWS for free to reconnect with service friends. HullNumber.com takes your privacy seriously. In the next two years, new firefighting . He said it was extremely difficult to remove charred, blackened bodies locked in rigor mortis "while maintaining some sort of dignity for your fallen comrades. The demand for general-purpose bombs (e.g., "iron bombs") greatly exceeded production. McCain was knocked backwards 10 feet (3.0m), struck by shrapnel and wounded. We hope this is helpful. [11]:86 Forrestal's ordnance officers reported the situation up the chain of command to the ship's commanding officer, Captain John Beling, and informed him the bombs were, in their assessment, an imminent danger to the ship and should be immediately jettisoned overboard. Launches were sometimes delayed when a crew member had difficulty completing the connection. DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks: 20 Years Later, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. Damage Control Team Eight, led by Chief Aviation Boatswains Mate Gerald Farrier, which had received specialized flight-deck fire-fighting training, immediately reacted to fight the fire. (Three months later, on 26 October 1967, flying from OriskanyCVA-34Lieutenant Commander McCain would be shot down over North Vietnam on his 23rd bombing mission.). Herbert A. This film depicts an accident that occurred in 1967 off the coast of Vietnam involving the USS Forrestal. At one minute and 34 seconds, the bomb exploded, killing Chief Farrier and almost his entire team (only three survived severely injured,) and also killed Lieutenant Commander White. Farrier, without taking the time to locate and put on protective clothing, immediately attempted to smother the bomb with a PKP fire extinguisher, attempting to delay the fuel fire from spreading and give the pilots time to escape their aircraft. Damage Control Team No. Footage revealed that damage-control teams sprayed firefighting foam on the deck to smother the burning fuel, which was the correct procedure, but their efforts were negated by crewmen on the other side of the deck who sprayed seawater, which washed the foam away. Your ORIGINAL HOMETOWN and State are asked for because that confirms who you are in your shipmate's memories. Twenty-seven men were injured. A little more than one minute after the fire started, one of the bombs fractured open, and Chief Farrier immediately ordered his team to withdraw, fearing an imminent cook-off. Tom Wimberly, Captain, U. S. Navy (Retired). Crew members aboard USS Forrestal fight fires and explosions on the carrier's after flight deck, July 29, 1967. LT(JG) Don Dameworth and LT(JG) David Dollarhide were injured escaping their aircraft. Of note, the greatest loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II was 176 killed when Hobson (DMS-26) broke in half and sank after a collision with Wasp (CV-18) on 26 April 1952. [43], The Farrier Firefighting School at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, is named after Chief Gerald W. Farrier, the commander of Damage Control Team 8, who was killed in the initial explosion. [9][pageneeded] It was common for aircraft to launch with six or more rocket packs, each containing four rockets. [14] Based on their training, the team believed they had a ten-minute window to extinguish the fire before the bombs casing would melt resulting in a low-order explosion.[27]. It took many hours to account for the ship's crew. Due to the extent of the damage to Forrestal, there are still details that remain unknown. While accomplishing trials, the ship also recorded its first arrested landing since the fire, when Commander Robert E. Ferguson, Commander, CVW-17, landed on board.[1]. The Zuni was protected from launching by a safety pin that was only to be removed prior to launch from the catapult. The United States Navy uses the Forrestal fire and the lessons learned from it when teaching damage control and ammunition safety. Recruits are tested on their knowledge and skills by having to use portable extinguishers and charged hoses to fight fires, as well as demonstrating the ability to egress from compartments that are heated and filled with smoke. They had been shown films during training of Navy ordnance tests demonstrating how a 1,000 lb bomb could be directly exposed to a jet fuel fire for a full ten minutes and still be extinguished and cooled without an explosive cook-off. Other bombs on the flight deck performed as designed and did not detonate due to the fire. [10] The ongoing detonations prevented fire suppression efforts during the first critical minutes of the disaster. The National Naval Aviation Museum collection also includes the Forrestal Fire exhibit and the Forrestal Plan of the Day from 30 July 1967, the day after the fire. Click to View Online Archive On July 29, 1967, a fire broke out on board the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. Download image. 405, piloted by Lt. Cmdr. For more information about the non-digitized records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RDT2) via email at, You may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2. Standard procedure was to store them in the ship's magazine with the rest of the air wing's ordnance; had they been stored as standard, an accidental detonation could easily have destroyed the ship. Your download link will then be active for 48 hours before it expires. The carriers fire crew responded immediately. "[33], At 17:05, a muster of Forrestal crewmenboth in the carrier and aboard other shipswas begun. [28] Bodies and debris were hurled as far as the bow of the ship. Registration and communicating with shipmates at Hullnumber.com is FREE FOREVER. The memo, written on 8 July 1967, was circulated to the ship's operations officer. Sailors without training in firefighting and damage control took over for the depleted damage control teams. The fire broke out after a lit flare was locked in a flare locker. HullNumber.com does not share your information. [14], The disaster was a major news story and was featured under the headline "Inferno at Sea" on the cover of the 11 August 1967, issue of Life magazine.[49]. [citation needed], In addition to bombs, the ground attack aircraft carried unguided 5in (127mm) Mk-32 "Zuni" rockets. The official report states that "at least one" Korean War-era 1,000 lb AN-M65 bomb fell from an A-4 Skyhawk to the deck;[19]:35[25][26] other reports say two. Nearly 200 U.S. troops were killed on that single day. So I went up and defused them and had them jettisoned." [11]:85, On 28 July, the day before the accident, Forrestal was resupplied with ordnance by the ammunition ship USSDiamond Head. [10][16][17] In one concession to the demands of the ordnance handlers, Beling agreed to store all 16 bombs alone on deck in the "bomb farm" area between the starboard rail and the carrier's island until they were loaded for the next day's missions. She never made another Vietnam cruise. You may experience a delay in receiving an initial acknowledgment as well as a substantive response to your reference request from RDT2. It is estimated that there are between 50,000 and 90,000 Blue Water Navy veterans. Quick Ship Facts Ship's Name: USS Kitty Hawk Year Built: 1956 Years In Service: 1960 - 2009 F-4B Phantom II (VF-11 / CVW-17) embarked on USS Forrestal (CVA 59) was refueled by a KA-6D Intruder of VA-85 - circa 1971-73 . [41][42] The report itself lacks an accurate reference to the fire. The electrical surge caused one of the four 5-inch Mk-32 Zuni unguided rockets in a pod on external stores station 2 (port inboard station) to fire. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College masters thesis by Lieutenant Commander Henry P. Stewart. The aircraft carrier, the mightiest of the U.S. fleet, was preparing to launch attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired a rocket across the flight . by Peter Suciu Here's What You Need to Remember: USS Forrestal had been. The explosions and fire killed 50 night crew personnel who were sleeping in berthing compartments below the aft portion of the flight deck. Best of luck with your research! Other carriers had problems with the Zuni rockets. Veterans who served on the USS Forrestal accompany their former captain, retired Rear Adm. John K. Beling, in wheelchair, at a ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial honoring the 134 sailors who were . [14][19]:57, At about 10:51 (local time) on 29 July, an electrical power surge in Phantom No. The 76,000-ton carrier was on the fifth . Rockets and 20mm shells shot across the deck, and ejection seats fired into the air. Actually, later analysis indicates at least nine bombs exploded on the flight deck, eight of them AN-M65s with significantly enhanced blast over a normal 1,000-pound bomb. USS Forrestal (CVA-59) fire and explosions on flight deck during combat operations off Vietnam. First loss: C-141A 65-9407 (62d Military Airlift Wing) destroyed in a night runway collision with a USMC A-6 at Danang, SVN on 23 March 1967 killing 5 of the 6 crewmen. 135 of them include images. 20K views 2 years ago Made in the wake of the disastrous 1967 fire aboard the USS Forrestal, TRIAL BY FIRE recounts the incident and discusses some of the mistakes made by fire fighting. Unlike the thick-cased Mark 83 bombs filled with Composition H6, the AN-M65A1 bombs were thin-skinned and filled with Composition B, an older explosive with greater shock and heat sensitivity. [16][10] The bomb fell in a pool of burning fuel between White's and McCain's aircraft. WMR has learned additional details regarding the deadly fire aboard the Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Forrestal, on July 19, 1967 in the Gulf of Tonkin. [25] CVW-17 operations officer, Lt. Cmdr. By holding Beling responsible he would effectively end his career. A second bomb exploded nine seconds later and a chain reaction followed. If you contact a Shipmate through HullNumber, your email address is not displayed in the message to your Shipmate. [19]:36,88, "I saw a dozen people running into the fire, just before the bomb cooked off," Lt. Cmdr. The Forrestal's crew moved toward their assigned "battle stations." When General Quarters was set, Forrestal's crew members fully manned all positions in the ship's damage control organization. "[40]:19. [45], The fire revealed that Forrestal lacked a heavy-duty, armored forklift needed to jettison aircraft, particularly heavier planes like the RA-5C Vigilante, as well as heavy or damaged ordnance.[1]. It killed 134 men. [9][pageneeded] They ruled he was not responsible for the disaster,[9]:117 but he was nonetheless transferred to staff work, and never returned to active command. The fire killed 44 people, mostly air crew, and injured 156 more. 134 of them died at sea, in the Gulf of Tonkin, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal.The carrier had accidentally caught fire after a rocket misfired below the flight deck, igniting a fuel tank. Find USS Forrestal (CVA-59) unit information, patches, operation history, veteran photos and more on TogetherWeServed.com. He had Beling assigned to his staff so he could issue a letter of reprimand. A sailor standing about 100 feet (30m) forward was struck by a fragment of the Zuni or the exploding fuel tank. Hope of VA-46, escaped by jumping out of the Skyhawk cockpit and rolling off the flight deck and into the starboard man-overboard net. Another destroyer, USSRupertus, maneuvered as close as 20 feet (6m) to Forrestal for 90 minutes, directing her own on-board fire hoses at the burning flight and hangar deck on the starboard side, and at the port-side aft 5-inch gun mount. The AN-M65 bombs had been brought aboard the day before, were over a decade old, in very poor condition, considered an extreme safety hazard by the commanding officer of Forrestal, Captain John Beling, and, according to the ships ordnance officer, were an imminent danger to the ship and should be jettisoned overboard. Capable of launching larger, more powerful F-4 Phantom fighters on its thousand-foot-long flight deck using steam catapults, the Forrestal was deployed to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin in July 1967 to contribute its . Lt Ken McMillen escaped. In a memorandum of the meeting, they agreed to "Allow ordnance personnel to connect pigtails 'in the pack', prior to taxi, leaving only safety pin removal at the cat." [10] Thirty-five personnel were in close proximity to the blast. The repair cost about $72 million ($561million in 2021 dollars), and took nearly five months to complete.