On 29 July 1967, Forrestal (CVA-59) experienced a severe fire while operating on Yankee
Station off Vietnam that killed 134 Sailors and aviators, injured 161, and destroyed 21 aircraft. This was (and remains) the second worst loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II. The disaster resulted in a very long list of lessons learned (many of which were “lessons forgotten” from carrier conflagrations during World War II), which transformed the U.S. Navy’s approach to firefighting, damage control, and ordnance handling in the decades since. In recent years, articles have appeared on the internet that are extremely inaccurate and generally intend to unfairly tarnish the reputation of Senator John S. McCain III, who survived the fire.At 1050, Forrestal commenced early launch of two KA-3B tankers, an EA-1, and an E-2A in preparation for an 1100 launch of a 24-plane Alpha Strike, the second of the day. At that time, a VF-11 F-4B (No. 110,) was spotted on the extreme starboard quarter of the flight deck. As the pilot of F-4B 110 shifted from external to internal power, multiple electrical malfunctions ignited one of the four 5-inch Mk-32 Zuni unguided rockets in a pod on external stores station 2 (port inboard station), which fired across the flight deck and struck VF-46 A-4E No. 405, piloted by LCDR Fred White, rupturing its fuel tank, igniting the fuel, and initiating the fire. Although the board of investigation reached the opinion that the Zuni rocket hit 405, there is some ambiguity in eyewitness accounts as to whether the rocket hit 405 or the plane next to it, 416, piloted by Lieutenant Commander John McCain. The rocket itself actually impacted the ocean beyond both aircraft. Regardless, shrapnel ripped into both aircraft, and both were immediately sprayed by fuel; a pool of fuel ignited between and under the two aircraft. Both pilots initially escaped from the flames around their aircraft.
The impact of the Zuni rocket dislodged at least one, probably two, 1,000-pound AN-M65A1 bombs, which fell into the flames. The outdated AN-M65s were being used because of an acute shortage of Mark 83 general-purpose 1,000-pound bombs resulting from the intense Navy bombing campaign in North Vietnam, which expended bombs faster than they could be produced. The AN-M65 bombs had been brought aboard the day before, were over a decade old, in very poor condition, considered an extreme safety hazard by the commanding officer of Forrestal, Captain John Beling, and, according to the ship’s ordnance officer, were an imminent danger to the ship and should be jettisoned overboard. Doing so, however, would have necessitated scrubbing that day’s combat mission over North Vietnam, so Captain Beling reluctantly accepted the risk.
While those old bombs did not cause the initiating event, they certainly exacerbated what followed. Of the many lessons learned from this horrendous fire, one point needs to be repeated: Old munitions can be very dangerous. Firefighting training and skill are vital for every sailor to master.
An excellent book on the fire is Sailors to the End.
And, in case you don't understand what the truth has always been, none of what happened was John McCain's responsibility.
"Trail by Fire" is the one movie every sailor saw in bootcamp.
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