True the way I remember it...Damage control parties were all enlisted IIRC.
The Oriskany fire was awful. If there was ever an object lesson in just how mundane shipboard life can go from mundane to hair-raising, that would be it. One can easily imagine the young guy throwing the flare back into the compartment in panic. Probably seemed like a reasonable thing to do in the moment.
Funny, I know a lot about the Forrestal and Oriskany fires, but for some reason, I have never got around to learning much about the Enterprise fire. I can see how some would conflate the Forrestal and Enterprise fires.
I think Enterprise is where the so called wet start rumors came from that and dropping a bomb. IIRC Forestall did have possibly one other contributing factor which was believed to be aged bombs that cooked off once the fire began. Some accounts mention it some don't. It sounded more like the plane explosions triggered them.
The two officers I mentioned on my ship both were engineering officers but not the CHENG as he was a very calm man. Back in the day went carriers went to sea in war or peace it was a given fact of carrier life that men died. Only one in my 4 years was from natural causes a chief died in the rack. One jumped overboard entering the channel coming back to port, several were pilots in crashes, one was a Chalker who bought it during a Tomcat re-spot by getting ran over, one dove into the dry dock from island level. My cousins son was in Gulf War One deployed squadron on the Washington I think. They didn't loose anybody. I was amazed.
I think some also have misconception on how ship fires are handled. You gear up first and it takes two hose teams per fire due to intense heat. Number One Hose Team is the working nozzle fighting the fire. It takes a minimum of three good size men to man each hose. Number Two Hose Team Nozzleman {One On Two} has a goose neck positioned over "One on One" {the main nozzlemans} shoulders. The goose-neck can also be used as a last resort to attempt to put out a deep fryer or grease fire but you gotta know exactly how to do it and even then it's luck. In Fire Fighting School the instructors hated demonstrating how to put that one out. They did it but it was so dangerous to do we weren't allowed to attempt it. They used a long pole too pour a cup of water on the fire. The fire would explode and spread out over a wide area. Below decks on ship sure death.
Also when a fire is detected especially in a closed compartment you just don't play John Wayne and open it. You open the hatch and stick the goose-neck in to cool the entrance for entry because the sudden rush of oxygen hitting the fire and the resulting flash when the hatch opens will kill you if you don't. Again the goose-neck nozzle has it's purpose. Ship Fires are fought from a squatted position and geared up. Stand up and you'll likely die. With no oxygen source such as Scott Air Packs OBA's back in the day were used. A self contained oxygen generator that had a nasty quirk of failing. The fumes could kill ya as quick as the fire.
I’ve been reviewing several threads on McCain and the Forrestal fire. I’m reasonably satisfied he had no culpability.
However, I’m flummoxed on how he managed to just up and leave the ship on a helicopter with a NY Times reporter. Was he AWOL? Was he granted leave by his CO? Was he debriefed first? If not, why?
So far, I can find no rational explanation.