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Sorry but I can confirm the body count, at least I think I can. During my second tour one of the officers I served with was onboard the Belknap at the time of the collision. I was the Damage Control Assistant and had the chance to talk with him in depth about it. He basically said that they side-swiped the Kennedy along the port side and the angle of the flight deck sliced off both macks. In addition JP5 from the ruptured fueling stations dumped onto the Belknap as well. She had an aluminum superstructure so that added to the problem. Anyway, to make a long story short she burned through most of the night and was attended by three other escorts that helped fight fires. No helos where used anywhere near the Belknap so there wasn't a chance to fly off the injured much less any bodies. He confirmed the 8 dead onboard the Belknap with the fatalities occuring in the Operations department (apparently the sonar shack to a big part of the hit) and in the engineering spaces with some sort of blowback caused when the macks were sliced off. In any case, the Belknap had a crew of about 450. If a quarter of the crew had been killed you never would have hid it. Nobody but nobody talks like sailors talk.

http://www.warships1.com/UScg26_Belknap_fire.htm

I haven't got the hang of the html thing yet, so you'll have to cut-and-paste the link.

Bottom line - there was a Courts Martial. If there had been massive casualties it would have come out.

That guy who said he saw all the bodies on the hanger deck was - other than lying about seeing them - confusing the Belknap (why would they transfer bodies to the carrier where more people could see them?) with the fire on the carrier Intrepid.

One of my favorite quotes is: "Anything that's too big to hide, but can't be seen - isn't there."

If a quarter of the crew had been killed you never would have hid it. Nobody but nobody talks like sailors talk.

I am truly glad to hear that. I wou;ld hate to think that the government would cover something that up.

Munoz was adamant; said he was on shark watch and he counted over 100 bodies himself.

I still have pictures I took of Belknap. The bridge was also ripped completely open; you can look through the port side and see daylight on the far side.

Walt