The best men of my generation went to Viet Nam if they were asked. The rest do not count.
Do recollect fire fighting training in the big simulators at Norfolk. My mother’s older brother served aboard the old Enterprise from 1939 to 1943, Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands, kamikaze, was flight deck damage control CPO in ‘43, saw many, many flight and hanger deck emergencies. He said that the Franklin took damage rather routine by Enterprise standards (!!!!) but couldn’t control the fire. Whew, I recollect the training films about Franklin.
It wasn't nothing fancy or at least in the late 70's anyway. It was just above the D&S piers maybe a half mile. The training structure wasn't that big about like what was used in the civilian world. IIRC it was one story I think two at the most but I don't remember stairs though. They would send us into it in different conditions including without an OBA so we could know how to survive off the hose if we had to. That trick got me out of a bad place one night. I was one on one and my OBA collapsed.
The most impressive lesson besides Forestall in Fire Fighting School was the grease fire demonstration. They had a pit that they set on fire and the instructor had a pole about 20 feet long with a cup of water on the end of it. A demonstration that showed why you do not use water on a grease fire was given.
When we were in the yards we sometimes got to train at the Yardbirds facility too. I think it was laid out more like a house though. I think I was involved in AMERICA first bad fire of any size. It was in a storeroom aft on the Hanger Bay. Another A-gang guy and myself were T.A.D. to Fire Department and discovered it. It had been going for a while. The heat transfer went up on the 02 level. No one got hurt but it took a while to put it out. The Barber Shop on the 02 level was destroyed due to water damage the 02 level also had a JP-5 day tank we were very concerned about and kept it cooled. The Barber shop deck was so hot I saw the floor tiles buckling.