Posted on 08/26/2007 1:44:09 PM PDT by Coleus
It was 40 years ago today, in the waters off Vietnam, that the crew of the USS Forrestal saw the gates of hell. A missile accidentally fired from a plane on the flight deck triggered a blazing inferno that would claim the lives of 134 men, two from New Jersey -- Francis Campeau of Bergenfield and Richard Vallone of Bridgewater. Not since World War II had a ship's crew sustained so many casualties.
The Forrestal, the first of the Navy's newest class of super carriers left Norfolk, Va., in June 1967 for what was to be her first combat deployment. Arriving off the coast of Vietnam on July 25, combat operations went into full swing, with the Forrestal's aircraft flying 150 sorties over the next four days.
The Tonkin Gulf was exceptionally hot and the morning of July 29 was no different. Walter Stinner woke at 4:30 a.m., along with the rest of his crew, to prepare the planes for the day's missions, Stinner grew up in Elizabeth's port section. Five days after he graduated high school in June, 1967, he enlisted in the Navy. With the war in Vietnam escalating, he figured he'd rather choose the branch of service he would serve in, than have it chosen for him.
Crews were prepping planes for the second launch of the morning, when shortly before 11 a.m., a Zuni rocket accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom. It flew across the deck, striking a 400-gallon fuel tank on a parked A-4D Skyhawk -- a plane that was to be flown by Sen. John McCain, then a young pilot.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I can only hope!
I got out in late 1980 but here is the most accurate site I know of that list modern day ship causalities. It could have been the Connie or there was an East Coast carrier that had an explosion in number 6 pump room killing two grapes. That one was on the America in May 89. That pump room wreaked and you could get a nose full even in the aft chow line in the 1970's. Number 2 pump which was the other JP-5 pump-room wasn't as bad as there was a Refrigeration Machinery space above it and it had good exhaust to help vent out the fumes from 2 pump. Here's you a good info link. Shipboard Casualties If anyone has a site with better general info please post it.
“Going to Hell in a ham basket”.
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That really did make me LOL.
When I used the expression “old wives’ tale” once in class, one of my students expressed total confusion. He wondered how something erroneous could be called an “old WISE tale”.
My youngest son told me years ago that for a while as a child he thought we had in our house, instead of a living room and a dining room, a living room and a dying room. Hmmm...Leaves openings for wise cracks about my cooking, I know.
Wow.
ping
I’ve never had an onboard fire, but have seen the results.
saw and talked to a guy with a Forrestal hat today....pretty interesting...my brother served on the Forrestal as well...
When the Forrestal was based here the crew were calling it the Forestfire.
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