The fire on the Enterprise was started by a misfire of a Zuni rocket. The huffer (a device used to start jet engines) exhaust overheated the Zuni and it exploded, setting off other rockets and bombs on the flight deck. The bombs exploding blew holes in the flight deck and allowed burning jet fuel to flow below decks, killing 28 sailors and wounding 314 others and destroying 15 other aircraft. A Zuni rocket also caused the Forrestal fire 2 years earlier.
This next picture is the USS Forrestal flight deck on fire the year before I was on the USS Kitty Hawk. Those same guys were later on the Kitty Hawk during my first cruise aboard her. They shared a maintenance shop with my outfit. Those guys would shudder every time the fire alarms went off and that happened a lot that cruise.
The Forrestal fire was set off by another Zuni rocket that was shot across the flight deck due to an electrical malfunction. That rocket hit the plane next to John McCain's plane and a fragment from the rocket struck my hero John McCain's A-4 Skyhawk as he was on deck waiting to be launched on an air attack over Vietnam. His external fuel tank ruptured and fuel spilled all over the deck and then ignited. There again bombs started exploding, blowing holes through the armored flight deck and allowing 40,000 gallons of burning fuel to enter the sleeping compartments and hanger deck below. The exploding bombs on the flight deck killed most of the best trained firefighters on the deck within 9 minutes, leaving minimally trained sailors to try to put out the fires there. There are videos on the internet showing the event, but some of the worst parts are cut out. We had to watch the flight deck videos in full and it was a horror story. 134 sailors died and 161 more were wounded that day.
This next picture is the USS Oriskany on fire. The fire started in the flare locker and spread up to the flight deck and down through decks below. The magnesium flares and magnesium wheels used on aircraft, once ignited, cannot be put out because they create their own oxygen. That was one month before I departed on the Kitty Hawk for the coast of Vietnam. At the time I was unaware of the Forrestal and Oriskany explosions and subsequent fires on the flight decks. Had I known I should have been concerned, but being young and dumb I would have thought it wouldn't happen to me.
The Oriskany fire killed 44 sailors and wounded 156 more. Flight decks are dangerous places to work. There are far more ways than fire and explosions to be harmed or killed on a flight deck. The one thing I learned about the Oriskany just recently was my good friend Kevin's father was a flight deck ordinance man (bombs, rockets, cannons) working on the flight deck of the Oriskany that day. The nightly news in San Diego that night covered the Oriskany fire and included the number of lives lost and wounded in the coverage, but the navy did not release any names until over a week later. The ship went into Subic Bay naval station for immediate repair before returning to San Francisco for major repairs. Kevin's father called from Subic to let the family know he was okay. It was a rough time for the family until they received the call from his father.
Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.
This next picture is the USS Forrestal flight deck on fire the year before I was on the USS Kitty Hawk. Those same guys were later on the Kitty Hawk during my first cruise aboard her. They shared a maintenance shop with my outfit. Those guys would shudder every time the fire alarms went off and that happened a lot that cruise.
The Forrestal fire was set off by another Zuni rocket that was shot across the flight deck due to an electrical malfunction. That rocket hit the plane next to John McCain's plane and a fragment from the rocket struck my hero John McCain's A-4 Skyhawk as he was on deck waiting to be launched on an air attack over Vietnam. His external fuel tank ruptured and fuel spilled all over the deck and then ignited. There again bombs started exploding, blowing holes through the armored flight deck and allowing 40,000 gallons of burning fuel to enter the sleeping compartments and hanger deck below. The exploding bombs on the flight deck killed most of the best trained firefighters on the deck within 9 minutes, leaving minimally trained sailors to try to put out the fires there. There are videos on the internet showing the event, but some of the worst parts are cut out. We had to watch the flight deck videos in full and it was a horror story. 134 sailors died and 161 more were wounded that day.
This next picture is the USS Oriskany on fire. The fire started in the flare locker and spread up to the flight deck and down through decks below. The magnesium flares and magnesium wheels used on aircraft, once ignited, cannot be put out because they create their own oxygen. That was one month before I departed on the Kitty Hawk for the coast of Vietnam. At the time I was unaware of the Forrestal and Oriskany explosions and subsequent fires on the flight decks. Had I known I should have been concerned, but being young and dumb I would have thought it wouldn't happen to me.
The Oriskany fire killed 44 sailors and wounded 156 more. Flight decks are dangerous places to work. There are far more ways than fire and explosions to be harmed or killed on a flight deck. The one thing I learned about the Oriskany just recently was my good friend Kevin's father was a flight deck ordinance man (bombs, rockets, cannons) working on the flight deck of the Oriskany that day. The nightly news in San Diego that night covered the Oriskany fire and included the number of lives lost and wounded in the coverage, but the navy did not release any names until over a week later. The ship went into Subic Bay naval station for immediate repair before returning to San Francisco for major repairs. Kevin's father called from Subic to let the family know he was okay. It was a rough time for the family until they received the call from his father.
Copyright Bill Weber 2019 and beyond.
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