Sailors manually jettisoned numerous 250 and 500 lb bombs by rolling them along the deck and off the side. [11]:123124 The unstable Composition B in the old bombs enhanced the power of the explosions. Another on-board officer, Lieutenant Tom Treanore, later returned to the ship as its commander and retired an admiral.[4]. The ship's four aft 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 guns were removed. The official report states that "at least one" Korean War-era 1,000 lb AN-M65 bomb fell from an A-4 Skyhawk to the deck;[19]:35[25][26] other reports say two. The electrical surge caused one of the four 5-inch Mk-32 Zuni unguided rockets in a pod on external stores station 2 (port inboard station) to fire. F-4B Phantom II (VF-11 / CVW-17) embarked on USS Forrestal (CVA 59) was refueled by a KA-6D Intruder of VA-85 - circa 1971-73 . The Air Force had a large supply of these bombs, and did not rely as heavily on the limited supply of 1,000 lb bombs as did the Navy. While accomplishing trials, the ship also recorded its first arrested landing since the fire, when Commander Robert E. Ferguson, Commander, CVW-17, landed on board.[1]. The fire spread with the first explosion to every aircraft across the entire after part of the flight deck. Naval Academy, The Sullivan Brothers and the Assignment of Family Members, Historic Former U.S. Navy Bases and Stations, The African American Experience in the U.S. Navy, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. Navy, Contributions of Native Americans to the U.S. Navy, The World Cruise of the Great White Fleet, Navy Underwater Archaeology Return Program, Annual Navy History and Heritage Awards - Main, Research Permits for Sunken & Terrestrial Military Craft, Scanning, Copyright & Citation Information, Obtain Duplications of Records and Photos, H-003-2 Japanese Offensive and Navy Response, H-010-2 The Battle of the Eastern Solomons, H-010-5 Plaque from Samuel B. Roberts (FFG-58), H-011-1 Guadalcanal: Victory at Cape Esperance, H-011-3 Santa Cruz (Japanese Pyrrhic Victory), H-014-1 The Seizure of USS Pueblo (AGER-2), H-017-2: Operation Rolling Thunder Overview, H-019-4 "Black May": Battle of the Atlantic 1943, H-019-5 "Black Sunday": U-Boats off U.S. East Coast 1918, H-020-4: Submarine AL-2 Versus U-Boat UB-65, H-024-1 Bougainville and Victory in the Solomons, H-025-1 Operation GalvanicTarawa and Makin, H-028-1 Vietnam 1969 Navy Medal of Honor Awards, H-032-1 Operation Forager and the Battle of Philippine Sea, H-Gram Special Edition: Passing of Supreme Court Justice Stevens, H-045-3: 50th Anniversary of Apollo 13 Mission, H-046-1: Kamikaze Attack on USS Aaron Ward, H-048-1: Kamikaze Attacks on U.S. Flagships, H-048-2: Naval Battle of Okinawa (Continued), H-049-2: LCDR George Street's Medal of Honor, H-052-1: The U.S. Navy and the Atomic Bomb, H-053-1: The End of the Imperial Japanese Navy, H-053-3: Operation Desert Shield, September 1990, H-054-1: Inchon Landing and Naval Action in the Korean War, September-October 1950, H-054-2: Operation Desert Shield, October 1990, H-055-2: Operation Desert Shield, November 1990, H-055-: Attack on USS Cole (DDG-67) October 2000, H-056-2: Operation Desert Shield, December 1990-January 1991, H-057-1: Operations Downfall and Ketsugo November 1945, H-057-2: Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night, H-058-1: Operation Desert Storm in January 1991, H-058-2: Korean War - Communist China Offensive, H-059-1: Operation Desert Storm in Feb-Mar 1991, H-059-2: 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War, H-061-1 Korea: U.S. Navy Operations, March-July 1951, H-061-3 Desert Storm: Sealift, Seabees, Navy Medicine, H-063-3: The Battle of Shimonoseki Strait, H-064-1: Close Quarters Antisubmarine Warfare (Part 1), H-064-2: Close Quarters Antisubmarine Warfare (Part 2), H-064-3: Close Quarters Antisubmarine Warfare (Part 3), H-069-1: "The Covered Wagon: USS Langley (CV-1), H-070-1: The Vietnam War Easter Offensive, Part 1, H-071-2: U.S. Navy Surface Ship Accidents Since World War II, H-071-3: The Sacrifices of USS Neosho and USS Sims, H-074-1: The Vietnam War Easter Offensive, Part 2, H-075-1: U.S. Navy vs. Soviets Overwater Dogfight, H-075-2: Short History of U.S. Navy Accidents and Non-Combat Losses. NORFOLK, Va. Thursday marks 54 years since a deadly fire broke out on the former USS Forrestal aircraft carrier, killing more than 100 Sailors. Forrestal crew members continued to put out hot spots, clear smoke, and cool hot steel on the 02 and 03 levels. Another destroyer, USSRupertus, maneuvered as close as 20 feet (6m) to Forrestal for 90 minutes, directing her own on-board fire hoses at the burning flight and hangar deck on the starboard side, and at the port-side aft 5-inch gun mount. Nine seconds later a second 1,000-pounder exploded with even more ferocity, hurling debris nearly 1,000 feet away at the bow. This. It then traveled east around the Horn of Africa and visited Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippine Islands before sailing to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin on 25 July. [19]:36,88, "I saw a dozen people running into the fire, just before the bomb cooked off," Lt. Cmdr. On 29 July 1967, USS Forrestal (CVA/CV-59) suffered a catastrophic fire during flight operations while on Yankee Station off the coast of Vietnam.Wracked by eight high-order explosions of thin-shelled Korean War-vintage bombs and a number of smaller weapons explosions, the world's first super carrier was mere minutes away from the bottom of the Gulf of Tonkin. Video providing overview of the event that changed how the Navy trains for firefighting and response. It states, "a Navy jet landing on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Fred D. White, on the port side of the aft deck. On 29 July 2017, the USS Forrestal Association commemorated the 50th anniversary of the incident. This evaluation is still carried out by the Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board. She never made another Vietnam cruise. Of note, the greatest loss of life on a U.S. Navy ship since World War II was 176 killed when Hobson (DMS-26) broke in half and sank after a collision with Wasp (CV-18) on 26 April 1952. [11]:87[14][13], According to Lieutenant R. R. "Rocky" Pratt, a naval aviator attached to VA-106,[15] the concern felt by Forrestal's ordnance handlers was striking, with many afraid to even handle the bombs; one officer wondered out loud if they would survive the shock of a catapult-assisted launch without spontaneously detonating, and others suggested they immediately jettison them. HullNumber.com does not share your information. U.S. Army Command and General Staff College masters thesis by Lieutenant Commander Henry P. Stewart. Members of the military, survivors of the disaster, and family members gathered to memorialize those lost in this incident. During welcoming ceremonies, a fire alarm signal alerted crews to a fire in mattresses within the burned-out compartments. 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. Based on their training with Mark 83 bombs, they expected to have approximatelyten minutes to extinguish the fire around the bomb before there was risk of the case melting or cooking off with a designed very low-order explosion. [10][16][17] In one concession to the demands of the ordnance handlers, Beling agreed to store all 16 bombs alone on deck in the "bomb farm" area between the starboard rail and the carrier's island until they were loaded for the next day's missions. USN 1124794. Beling, who had been in has cabin at the time, and supervised the damage control effort in his T-shirt, displayed considerable leadership throughout the harrowing 11-hour ordeal. Copyright 2023 HullNumber.com. The carrier occupied drydock number 8 from 21 September 1967, until 10 February 1968, displacing USSJohn King, an oil tanker, and a minesweeper that were occupying the drydock. [26], Throughout the day, the ship's medical staff worked in dangerous conditions to assist their comrades. Henry P. Stewart; Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS. Check out our, High Resolution Images, suitable for printing, Images are in the book's original order (not sorted like the scans above), Double pages with overlapping images will be provided as a single page, not as two separate pages, .pdf file, 352 pages, filesize: 631.19 MB. . Neighboring ships came alongside and pulled the men from the water. The ship survived, but with damage exceeding US$72 million, not including the damage to aircraft. Quick Ship Facts Ship's Name: USS Kitty Hawk Year Built: 1956 Years In Service: 1960 - 2009 [6], With orders to conduct strike missions over North Vietnam the next day, and with no replacement bombs available, Captain Beling reluctantly concluded that he had no choice but to accept the AN-M65A1 bombs in their current condition. During the post-fire refit, 175 feet (53m) of the flight deck was replaced, along with about 200 compartments on the 03, 02, 01 decks. The Navy investigation absolved Captain Beling of responsibility for the fire. So I went up and defused them and had them jettisoned." For RATING SHIRTS - Click on your Rating Abbreviation below: We hope this is helpful. Footage revealed that damage-control teams sprayed firefighting foam on the deck to smother the burning fuel, which was the correct procedure, but their efforts were negated by crewmen on the other side of the deck who sprayed seawater, which washed the foam away. [43], The Farrier Firefighting School at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, is named after Chief Gerald W. Farrier, the commander of Damage Control Team 8, who was killed in the initial explosion. National Naval Aviation Museum Ensures USS Forrestal Trial by Fire Accident is Forever Remembered Capable of launching larger, more powerful F-4 Phantom fighters on its thousand-foot-long flight deck using steam catapults, the Forrestal was deployed to Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin in July 1967 to contribute its . 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. 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. Most dangerous of all, several bombs were seen to be leaking liquid paraffin phlegmatizing agent from their seams, an unmistakable sign that the bomb's explosive filler had degenerated with excessive age, and exposure to heat and moisture. Firefighting was greatly hampered because of smoke and heat. Naval planes burn aboard the USS Forrestal in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast Vietnam, July 29, 1967, after an F-4 Phantom accidentally fired a zuni rocket into an A-4 Skyhawk which caused. Click to view crew list USS Forrestal, named for Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, was the first ship of the new 56,000-ton aircraft carriers built during the 1950's. After being built in Newport News, Virginia, the new ship was formally commissioned in October 1955. [2] Lieutenant Commander John McCain stated in his 1999 book Faith of My Fathers that the missile struck his aircraft, alongside White's A-4 Skyhawk. A total of ten bombs exploded during the fire. The number of casualties quickly overwhelmed the ship's medical teams, and Forrestal was escorted by USSHenry W. Tucker to rendezvous with hospital ship USSRepose at 20:54, allowing the crew to begin transferring the dead and wounded at 22:53.