Hit your knees tonight Please say a prayer the Sailors and Marines who died on the USS Forrestal on this date off the coast of Viet Nam;
On July 29, 1967 the USS Forrestal was operating on Yankee Station off the coast of North Vietnam conducting combat operations.
This was the fifth such day of operations and at 10:52am the crew was starting the second launch cycle of the day, when suddenly a zuni rocket accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom into a parked and armed A-4 Skyhawk. The accidental launch and subsequent impact caused the belly fuel tank and a 1,000 pound bomb on the Skyhawk to fall off, the tank broke open spilling JP5 (jet fuel) onto the flight deck and ignited a fire.
Within a minute and a half the bomb was the first to cook-off and explode, this caused a massive chain reaction of explosions that engulfed half the airwings aircraft, and blew huge holes in the steel flight deck. Fed by fuel and bombs from other aircraft that were armed and ready for the coming strike, the fire spread quickly, many pilots and support personnel were trapped and burned alive. Fuel and bombs spilled into the holes in the flight deck igniting fires on decks further into the bowels of the ship.
The crew heroically fought the fire and carried armed bombs to the side of the ship to throw them overboard for 13 hours. Once the fires were under control, the extent of the devastation was apparent. Most tragic was the loss to the crew, 134 had lost their lives, while an additional 64 were injured, this was and still remains the single worst loss of life on a navy vessel since the USS Franklin (CV-13) was bombed in WWII.
Eighteen members of the crew are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
RIP Shipmates and Friends We Have The Watch,
