 When a person goes to war, there is always the expectation that they may see danger. There is a hole opposing side with the sole goal to beat your side after all. Being wounded or killed in battle is a tragedy, but it is a possibility. But to be killed or wounded in an accident in a war zone is catastrophic. This would be the case for the USS Forestall when she was in the Bay of Tonkin and a fire and then explosion ravaged her flight deck. The disaster would highlight issues with corners being cut on the handling of munitions aboard US carrier ships. My name is John and today we're looking at the USS Forestall fire. Welcome to Plainly Difficult, a super carrier. Ok, so I won't go too deep into the Forestall's history as we have some background to cover in a few other places as well. But the Forestall was a bit of a trailblazer for the US Navy. She was designed in the early 1950s for supporting jet aircraft and because of this, it was one of the largest carriers of her time. She was laid down in July 1952 and over her two years of construction her plans would change to incorporate the cutting edge of carrier technology. She got steam catapults and an angled flight deck as well as an optical landing system. She was the first super carrier in the US Navy and as such when she was commissioned in 1955 she would parade around the seas to show off what the Americans can build. In November 1963 she would be part of aviation history with the largest and heaviest aeroplane landing on a Navy aircraft carrier when a C-130 Hercules made 21 full stop landings and takeoffs. Doesn't this photo just make the carrier seem kind of comically small? She wasn't as she was 1067 feet long and 238 feet wide. Anywho, the Vietnam War would get under the way and in 1967 she would be called up for service under the command of Captain John Kingsman Bealing and departed Norfolk in June of that year to head for the Gulf of Tonkin. She was attached to the newly formed carrier Airwing 17. 1967 was a tough year for the Navy as a sustained bombing campaign was being undertaken from the fixed coordinate point of the Gulf of Tonkin called Yankee Station. Stores of bombs were running low putting strain on the demand to blow up as much of Vietnam as possible. The forest tour was complemented with F-4B Phantoms, 4E Skyhawks and RA-5C Vigilantes. All of which could be armed with general purpose bombs. These dumb munitions, i.e. unguided, were dropped over a target and free fell to earth. Whilst we're here, let's talk a little bit about bombs and rockets. Bombs, bombs and rockets. So, as I mentioned, there was a bit of a bomb shortage, especially the £1,000 variant. This was because the aircraft used by the Navy at the time had the ability to deploy either one £2,000 bomb or two £1,000 bombs. Two bombs meant two separate targets could be hit during one flight, offering greater operational flexibility. As stockpiles dwindled, the Navy was required to drag out older and older munitions. As the, at the time, current Mark 83 bomb was being used quicker than it was being built. The older bombs were in the form of the Mark 65. The exact weapons the Mark 83 had sought to replace. A design hailing all the way back to 1939, albeit the ones available in the 1960s, dated only back as far as the early 1950s. These older bombs came with some unforeseen issues. In that, they were way more susceptible to cook-off when exposed to fire. That is, exploding. But the aircraft aboard for a stool also could be armed with rockets, and that came in the form of the Zuni. The Zuni rocket is an air-to-air or air-to-surface unguided 127mm or 5-inch wide system. The Zunis were launched from a 4-tube LAU-10 rocket pod. These were mounted to the underside of aircraft via a triple ejector rack. Both the launcher and rockets were known to be susceptible to electrical spikes, causing it to launch prematurely. No worries, as that's what safety systems are for. These came in the form of a safety pin, which locked out the rocket both mechanically and electrically. These, by Navy rules, could only be removed once the aircraft was on the catapult, as it's the last moment before the plane is launched. And that if a missile was to be fired, in theory it would just shoot off into the distance relatively safely. The other way to prevent premature firing was that the launch pod wouldn't be electrically connected to the aircraft, again only when on the catapult. This connection was called colloquially the pigtail, but it took some time to hook up, as such launching was often delayed. Something not so good with the high-paced takeoff and landings when working from Yankee Station during the Vietnam War. This would be modified after a meeting of the ship's safety committee. They chose to bypass this and connect the pigtail whilst the aircraft was still waiting on deck for their time for launch. After all they must have thought there was still a safety pin. However it was ignored that the fact that the pins could and did blow off in strong winds. The idea for the modification was from operational experiences of other carriers that had been working in the Gulf Tonkin, making the practice pretty widespread around a navy. But although the practice was common it didn't mean it was a good idea. What the board also didn't consider was that ground crews had also been making modifications to the procedures themselves, again to speed things up and get planes into the air quicker. This was the ground crew removing the pins before placing the aircraft on the catapult, which essentially with these two things combined left no safety system in place. The disaster. It is the 28th July and the punishing level of bombing raids over North Vietnam has dwindled the ship's stockpile of Mark 83 bombs. As such the forestal is being resupplied, from the ammunition ship the USS Diamond Head. Amongst the munitions are 16 Mark 65 bombs. The weapons handling crew aboard the forestal had never seen these older types of weapons before. They had dates going back as early as 1953, the Korean War. You'd think this isn't such a big deal, but the explosive material in the Mark 65s deteriorates over time, making them more susceptible to shock and heat. Worse still the bombs received were covered in rust and were in rotten and mouldy packing cases. And if that wasn't bad enough they were leaking liquid paraffin, phlegmatising agent. Word was sent up to Captain John Bayling that the bombs were a hazard to the ship and all aboard. Bayling contacted the Diamond Head demanding that they return the bombs and supply the requested Mark 83s. But she had none in stock herself. Scarily earlier when the Diamond Head was being loaded itself that Subic Bay the Ordnance Officer refused to sign off the transfer of the dodgy bombs due to the risk that they posed. He reluctantly signed off, only after a written order absolving his team of any blame if anything was to go wrong was Tellex to him. Anywho back on the forestal Captain Bayling begrudgingly accepted the bombs and they were stored on deck instead of the ship's magazine. They would stay in a place called the Bomb Farm overnight to await delivery the next day to some unsuspecting North Vietnamese. The morning of the 29th started off with the flight's first sortie of the day at roughly 7am. By around 10am the deck was packed with aircraft almost wing to wing though being armed for the day's second mission. One of the planes armed to the teeth was an F4 Phantom numbered 110. It was on the aft starboard corner of the ship's deck facing other aircraft. It was armed with Zuni rockets in their respective pods. Its pigtail was attached and its pin had been removed. Pilot Jim Bangurt was changing over power supplies from ship based to internal. This had an issue it could cause power surges. No points for guessing what would happen next. A Zuni rocket was unintentionally fired. It shot across the deck hitting an A4 Skyhawk's fuel tank which was piloted by future Senator John McCain. The rocket didn't detonate but it did rupture the tank spilling highly flammable jet fuel all over the deck. It then erupted into flames. During the rocket's flight it had severely burned and injured several crew members and this was at roughly 10.51am. More fuel spilled out in turn igniting. Directly above it was mounted one of those very old 1000lb bombs. Several of the pilots including McCain managed to flee and escape. The bomb fell into the fire. Chief Gerald W. Farrier attempted to call it by smothering it with fire extinguisher foam. Fire quarters and then general quarters were sounded at 10.52. Just one minute and 36 seconds later the bomb cooked off. The explosion instantly killed five men, injuring scores more. Debris and superheated fragments were strewn across the deck, creating even more fire. Within five minutes another 8 1000lb bombs had detonated. Some rockets had also cooked off and a couple of other size bombs had also exploded, making multiple planes just a mere wreck. The explosions had caused damage to quarters below the aft six of the main deck, killing many unsuspecting sailors. At the same time fuel drained into the lower decks, filled with night crewmen sleeping in their quarters. Fires erupted below the main deck, causing even greater numbers of casualties. Fire suppression was hindered by the ongoing explosions. Many munitions were thrown overboard and in the ensuing chaos many untrained men helped fight the fires but in doing so inadvertently they washed away the fire suppressing foam with sea water. Another ship came in to assist, blasting the forest still with water and assisting in rescuing men who had jumped off the main deck. By 1147 the fire was under control on the main deck but below the inferno would be fought for several more hours. In total after a lot of searching 134 men were accounted for as dead and 161 were injured. As recovery efforts began multiple bombs were found amongst the debris, luckily they hadn't exploded. 21 aircraft were destroyed in the fire and explosions and searching for the dead and wounded would take all the way into the evening due to men being displaced onto other ships. Significant parts of the deck were heavily damaged and vast areas below deck were burnt to a crisp. Needless to say the ship wasn't any more fit for service. A few days after the forest still limped back to the Philippines for temporary repairs after which she returned to the United States for several months of proper repairs but has asked to cost the Navy $72 million in damages, not including the cost of the expensive aircraft. Of course with such a colossal loss of men and material the cause had to be established and that would lead us on to the next section of this video. The investigation. Whilst in the Philippines surviving crew members were interviewed by a team headed up by Rear Admiral Forsyth Massie. Quickly issues with the Zuni rockets and the aging bombs were discovered. It also wouldn't take long to find out about the modifications to the safety precautions when the aircraft were on deck awaiting takeoff. It was found that the meeting aboard the forest still, the safety committee, didn't run their amendments of the pigtail procedure to the captain bailing leaving the guy in charge out of the loop. However it was still known it was common practice across carriers operating around Vietnam. The investigation panel concluded that the spike in electrical current was caused by the switchover of power source aboard the plane which set off the rockets which had their two safety processes bypassed. Captain Bailing was absolved of all blame for the disaster. However he did know of the Zuni rocket issues and as such should have made greater effort to ensure procedures were followed. Well that was the gist of the investigation panel's summary. Even though not to blame Bailing was reassigned and would never command a ship again until his retirement in 1973. One of the glaring issues for crew safety was the lack of proper training for crew and that of the older bombs. They had been told that during training the bombs would last at least 10 minutes before a potential cook off. Sadly this time frame was for the newer and more stable mark 83 bombs. The Navy would learn from the disaster and train all crew as firefighters and also they attempted to better enforce regulations. However another disaster involving a Zuni rocket would also unfold during the Vietnam War in 1969. This is a plain default production. All videos on the channel are creative commons attribution share alike licensed. Plain difficult videos are produced by me John in a currently warm but windy corner of southern London UK. I have Instagram and a second YouTube channel so check them out to fancy seeing more stuff. I would also like to thank my patrons and YouTube members for your financial support and the rest of you for tuning in every week to listen to me talk and watch my poorly drawn cartoons. And all I have to say is thank you for watching and Mr Music, play us out please.