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1967 USS Forrestal fire

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1967 USS Forrestal fire
Rupertus (DD-851) maneuvers to within 20 feet of Forrestal so fire hoses could be effectively used on the worst US carrier fire since WWII.
Date29 July 1967
TimeAbout 10:50 a.m. local time
LocationGulf of Tonkin
Casualties
134 dead[1]
161 injured[1]
cost to USN $72 million[1]

On 29 July 1967, a devastating fire and series of explosions caused great loss of life on the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CV-59) after an unusual electrical anomaly discharged a Zuni rocket on the flight deck. One hundred and thirty four sailors were killed and 161 were injured. Forrestal was engaged in combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam War at the time, and the damage totaled $72 million (not including damage to aircraft).[2][1]

Background

Forrestal had departed Norfolk earlier that month. For four days in the gulf, aircraft of Attack Carrier Air Wing 17 flew about 150 missions against targets in North Vietnam. Because of a shortage of 1000 lb bombs, old Composition B bombs had been loaded from the ammunition ship USS Diamond Head, instead of newer Composition H6, capable of withstanding high heat or exploding with low order.

Fire

Crew members fighting fires on board Forrestal.

About 10:50 (local time) on the 29th, while preparations for a second strike were being made near 19°9′5″N 107°23′5″E / 19.15139°N 107.38472°E / 19.15139; 107.38472,[3] an unguided 5-inch Mk-32 "Zuni" rocket, one of four contained in a LAU-10 underwing rocket pod mounted on a F-4 Phantom II, was accidentally fired due to an electrical power surge during the switch from external power to internal power.

The rocket flew across the flight deck, striking a wing-mounted external fuel tank on an A-4 Skyhawk, either Aircraft No. 405 piloted by LCDR Fred D. White[1] or No. 416 piloted by future Arizona Senator, LCDR John McCain,[4] which were waiting to launch.[3] The warhead's safety mechanism prevented it from detonating, but the impact tore the tank off the wing and ignited the resulting spray of pressurized fuel, causing an instantaneous conflagration. The heat caused additional fuel tanks to overheat, rupture and spew volatile jet fuel onto the deck, feeding the flames. Huge gusts of fire shot into the air along the flight deck, trapping pilots in their aircraft with no recourse but to escape through the flames or be incinerated in their cockpits. LCDR Fred D. White, waiting to launch in Aircraft No. 405, leaped out of his burning Skyhawk in an attempt to escape the inferno, but was killed instantly (along with many firefighters) by the cooking off of the first bomb. LCDR Herbert A. Hope of VA-46 (and operations officer of CVW-17) jumped out of the cockpit of his Skyhawk between explosions, rolled off the flight deck and into the starboard man-overboard net. Making his way down below to the hangar deck, he gallantly took command of a firefighting team. "The port quarter of the flight deck where I was" he recalled, "is no longer there."[3] With his aircraft surrounded by flames, McCain escaped by climbing out of the cockpit, walking down the nose and jumping off the refueling probe.

The impact of the Zuni on the initially-struck aircraft had also dislodged two of the 1000-lb bombs, which lay in the burning fuel. The fire teams chief, Gerald Farrier (without benefit of protective clothing) immediately drenched the bombs with a PKP fire extinguisher in an effort to knock down the fuel fire long enough to allow the pilots to escape. According to their training, the fire team normally had almost three minutes to reduce the temperature of the bombs to a safe level, but the chief did not realize the bombs were already critically close to cooking-off until one split open. The chief, knowing a lethal explosion was imminent, shouted for the fire team to withdraw but the bomb exploded seconds later.[citation needed]

One minute and 34 seconds after the impact and initial fire, and with the on-deck firefighting teams still actively battling the blaze, a 1000-lb. "Comp. B" bomb cooked off from the heat of the flames and exploded underneath McCain's plane; the force destroyed the aircraft (along with its remaining fuel and armament), blew a smoking crater in the armored flight deck, and sprayed the deck and crew with shrapnel and burning jet fuel. The explosion killed the entire on-deck firefighting contingent, with the exception of 3 men who managed to survive with critical injuries. The two bomb-laden A-4s in line ahead of McCain's were riddled with shrapnel from the explosion and engulfed in the flaming JP-5 jet fuel still spreading over the deck, causing more bombs to detonate and more fuel to spill.

Exhausted crewmembers in front of what remains of a row of F-4B Phantoms that were parked along the starboard stern quarter.

Nine bomb explosions on the flight deck occurred, eight caused by the "Comp. B" bombs and the ninth occurred as a sympathetic detonation between an old bomb and a newer H6 bomb. The explosions tore large holes in the armored flight deck, causing flaming jet fuel to drain into the interior of the ship, including the living quarters directly underneath the flight deck, and the below-decks aircraft hangar.

Sailors and Marines brought the flames under control on the flight deck by 12:15, although they continued to clear smoke and to cool hot steel on the 02 and 03 levels until they reported all fires under control by 13:42, and finally declared the fire defeated at 04:00 the next morning, due to additional flare-ups.[3]

Throughout the day the ship’s medical staff worked in dangerous conditions to assist their comrades. HM2 Paul Streetman, one of 38 corpsmen assigned to the carrier, spent over 11 hours on the mangled flight deck tending to his shipmates. The large number of casualties quickly overwhelmed the ship’s Sick Bay staff, and Forrestal was escorted by USS Henry W. Tucker (DD-875) to rendezvous with hospital ship USS Repose (AH-16) at 20:54, allowing the crew to begin transferring the dead and wounded at 2253.[3]

Aftermath

Forrestal about one month after the fire.

The fire left 134 Forrestal crewmen dead[5] and 161 more injured.[1] Many planes and armament were jettisoned to prevent them from catching fire/exploding. Twenty-one aircraft also sustained enough damage from fire, explosions and salt water to be stricken from naval inventory, including: seven F-4 Phantom IIs (BuNos 153046, 153054, 153060, 153061, 153066, 153069 and 153912); eleven A-4E Skyhawks (149996, 150064, 150068, 150084, 150115, 150118, 150129, 152018, 152024, 152036 and 152040); and three RA-5 Vigilantes (148932, 149282 and 149305). The fire also revealed that Forrestal required a heavy duty, armored forklift for use in the emergency jettisoning of aircraft (particularly heavier types such as the RA-5B Vigilante),[3] since the sailors of Forrestal had been forced to manually jettison numerous aircraft through human force,[citation needed] which was both inefficient and dangerous to the exposed crew.

From 31 July to 11 August 1967, Forrestal was moored at Leyte Pier at Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippines for temporary repairs. On September 12-13 , Forrestal arrived at Mayport and unloaded aircraft and the crews of squadrons based in Florida. On September 14, the ship returned to Norfolk and was welcomed home by over 3,000 family members and friends gathered on Pier 12 and on board Randolph, Forrestal’s host ship.[3]

From 19 September 1967 to 8 April 1968, Forrestal underwent repairs in Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The carrier occupied drydock number 8 from 21 September 1967 to 10 February 1968. The ship floated from drydock and shifted to Berths 42 and 43 in front of the drydock to complete repairs.[3] During the post-fire refit, the ship's four aft 5"/54 caliber Mark 42 guns were removed. The forward four guns were removed prior to 1962.

From April 8 - 15 1968 CAPT Robert B. Baldwin sailed the carrier down the Elizabeth River and out into the waters off the Virginia capes for her post repair trials, the ship’s first time at sea in 207 days. While accomplishing trials the ship also recorded her first arrested landing since the fire when CDR Robert E. Ferguson, Commander, CVW-17, landed on board.[3]

Flags and photos displayed at a 40th anniversary memorial ceremony in Norfolk, VA.

Even today the Navy commonly refers to the fire aboard the Forrestal, and the lessons learned, when teaching damage control and ammunition safety. The Navy circulated the lessons which the men of Forrestal re-learned at such cost throughout the Fleet, and the flight deck film of the flight operations, subsequently entitled Learn Or Burn, became mandatory viewing for fire fighting trainees for years.[3] All new Navy recruits are required to view a training video titled "Trial by Fire: A Carrier Burns", produced from footage of the fire and damage control efforts, both successful and unsuccessful. On the one hand there were damage control teams spraying foam on the deck to contain the flames, which was the correct procedure, while on the other hand crewmen on the other side of the deck sprayed seawater, washing away the foam and worsening the situation by washing burning fuel through the hole in the flight deck into the decks below: burning fuel is not easily extinguished and can in fact be spread by water. Due to the first bomb blast killing nearly all of the specially trained firefighters on the ship, the remaining crew, who had no formal firefighting training, had to improvise.[6]

Nowadays, it is said that every Navy Sailor is a firefighter first. A large portion of basic training is dedicated to firefighting and prevention tactics. Though there were many firefighting tools available on the Forrestal, including emergency respirators, the general crew were not trained in their use and so were unable to use them correctly.[citation needed]

In response, a "wash down" system was incorporated into all carriers, which floods the flight deck with foam or water. Many other fire safety improvements stemmed from this incident.

The Farrier Fire Fighting School Learning Site in Norfolk is named for Aviation Boatswain's Mate Chief Gerald W. Farrier, the sailor who died in the initial explosion in an attempt to extinguish the fire with a single PKP extinguisher.

Eighteen crew members were buried at Arlington National Cemetery.[7] Names of the dead are also listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Investigation

Sailors carefully lowered the first of their shipmates killed in the fire, when they moored at Leyte Pier at Naval Air Station Cubi Point in the Philippines.

Although investigators could not identify the exact chain of events behind the carnage, they revealed potential maintenance issues including concerns in circuitry (stray voltage) associated with LAU-10 rocket launchers and Zunis, as well as the age of the 1,000 pound "fat bombs" loaded for the strike, shards from one of which dated it originally to the Korean War in 1953.[3]

Safety regulations should have prevented the Zuni rocket from firing. A triple ejector rack (TER) electrical safety pin prevented any electrical signal from reaching the rockets but it was known that high winds could sometimes catch the attached tags blowing them free. The backup was the “pigtail” connection of the electrical wiring to the rockets pod. Regulations required they be connected only when the aircraft was attached to the catapult ready to launch. The Navy investigation found that four weeks before the fire the Forrestal’s Weapons Coordination Board had a meeting to discuss the possible problem of a faulty pigtail delaying a mission while the aircraft was removed from the launcher. The board ruled that in future the crew could ignore protocol and connect the pigtails while the aircraft were still queued. Though never made official, the crew immediately acted on the ruling. The inquiry found that the TER pin was likely blown free while the pigtail was connected and that the missile fired due to a power surge when the pilot transferred his systems from external to internal power. This incident also led the U.S. Navy to implement safety reviews for weapons systems going on board ships (whether for use or for shipping). Today, this evaluation still exists as the Weapon System Explosives Safety Review Board.[8]

Further reading

  • A complete account of the 1967 Forrestal fire can be found in the book Sailors to the End by Gregory A. Freeman. 2002. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060936908

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f The Impact of the USS Forrestal's 1967 Fire on United States Navy Shipboard Damage Control. Henry P. Stewart; Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, KS.
  2. ^ US Navy. Damage control museum. USS Forrestal (CVA 59).
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k US Navy. DANFS - Forrestal.
  4. ^ Cherney, Mike (2007-07-28). "Veterans salute sailors killed aboard carrier". Hampton Roads. The Virginian Pilot. pp. 1 and 8. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
  5. ^ South Carolina Military Museum. August 1967 list of casualties. (134 killed, all missing were accounted for. A 135th name, SN Kenneth Dyke, is sometimes included in lists of those killed in the fire. The cited memo notes that he drown the same day, but prior to the fire.)
  6. ^ A film of the events
  7. ^ Unofficial Arlington National Cemetery website. USS Forrestal.
  8. ^ Sailors to the End Gregory A. Freeman. 2002. HarperCollins. ISBN 0060936908
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