Wasn’t that the disaster McLame started?
I remember it well... My brother was on that ship. He thankfully made it.
Sorry
Such a lovely tribute posted by o7jimmy.
Thanks so much.
"We see severely injured young men in the steering control, cut off by the spreading inferno and with no hope of rescue, slowly dying, but stoically executing orders until they expired. ("They never begged for mercy. They never whined. They never whimpered. They were sailors to the end.") We see a young man -- his body charred beyond recognition -- lying in silence and patiently waiting to die, whose last thought is for the palpable saddness of his caregiver: "That's okay, you don't have to feel bad. I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of. I'm ready to go.' These ordinary, $150-a-month shiphands were the very definition of selflessness."......
The father of my college roommate was a “corpseman” on the Forrestal. When my friend got older, he asked his dad about that day. His dad was describing the injuries and death and fire and smells and started crying for a long time.
My son did a 6 month tour on the Forrestal during the end of the Carter Adm. and beginning of Reagans....the sailors called it the USS Zippo. I believe it caught fire on more than one occasion....The USS Saratoga was the sinking Sarah, one of his buddies sailed on Sarah....