USS Forrestal (CVA-59)

USS Forrestal (CVA-59) (later CV-59 and AVT-9) was a United States Navy aircraft carrier, the lead ship of a new class of "supercarriers", named after Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.

The fire

In June 1967, Forrestal departed Norfolk for duty in waters off Vietnam. In the Gulf of Tonkin on 29 July, Forrestal had been launching aircraft from her flight deck. For four days, the planes of Attack Carrier Air Wing 17 had been launched on, and recovered from, about 150 missions against targets in North Vietnam.

Related Topics:
1967 - Vietnam - Gulf of Tonkin - 29 July - Air Wing 17 - North Vietnam

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About 10:50 (local time), a missile fired from an F-4 Phantom II and hit an A-4 Skyhawk getting ready to launch with Lt. Cmdr. John McCain as the pilot. John McCain escaped from his jet by climbing out of the cockpit, walking down to the nose of the plane, and jumping off the nose boom. A minute and a half after the impact, the bomb exploded underneath McCain's plane, starting a major fire which killed 134 sailors and nearly threatened to destroy the ship.

Related Topics:
F-4 Phantom II - A-4 Skyhawk - John McCain

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Video tape shot aboard the Forrestal shows McCain narrowly escaping the explosion.

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The two A-4s ahead of his plane were engulfed in flaming jet fuel — JP-5 — spewed from them. A bomb dropped to the deck and rolled about 6 feet (2 m) and came to rest in a pool of burning fuel.

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The fire left 132 Forrestal crewmen dead, 62 more injured and two missing and presumed dead. The ship returned to Norfolk for extensive repairs.

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Even today the Navy commonly refers to the fire aboard the Forrestal, and the lessons learned, when teaching Damage control and Ammuniton safety. Following this fire, the ship developed the permanent nickname of "Forrest Fire".

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