The Picture of the Bomb Reminded me of This....

[John Rogers]

Bombs are fine things to have as long as they are dropped on the right people at the right places. Back in the days of "Rolling Thunder" (I think) the Enterprise, CVA(N) 65 was flying around the clock air strikes. On an Aircraft carrier there are several bomb elevators and usually they come up half way from the magazine, a armored door closes, the bomb(s) are then wheeled over to the second elevator that goes to the flight deck. The aft elevator on the Big E came up and then stopped right next to the 1st class mess and the bomb would get wheeled right through the mess to the upper elevator. Since the "Remove before flight" flag that armed the bomb was usually in place we didn't worry much.

So one evening suddenly there was a huge BANG and the ship shook some and the Red Shirts came running through hollering to run like hell! So we did!

Well it seems a fin on a 500# bomb had a bad crack in one of the fins so the red shirt wheeled the bomb cart quickly to the closed door to go back down and it quickly slid down to fully open. Just at the edge the poor guy saw the ELEVATOR WAS NOT UP!!! He let go of the dead man's handle but our nicely waxed floors did not stop the cart! Oh my oh my.

We found out later a broken wire in the control panel for the elevator and doors caused the malfunction and lucky for me and quite a few others the bomb and cart landed on the elevator, tail end first! The outcome of all this was to stop waxing the path the carts took and to NOT rush at any time.

[GH85Carrera]

Wow. That had to be a scary moment. I have little doubt that thinks like that happen often, and sheer luck prevents a tragedy. Of course the Big E did not survive all the "incidents" with no damage.

When they had the crap hit the fan moment, it hit in a big way on January 14, 1969. We lived in Hawaii at the time, and saw only the aftermath and a lot of badly burned men.

[Neilk]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

When they had the crap hit the fan moment, it hit in a big way on January 14, 1969. We lived in Hawaii at the time, and saw only the aftermath and a lot of badly burned men.

Damn, reading this wikipedia entry it's surprising the ship didn't sink. Poor crew that was lost that day. What a tragedy.

[GH85Carrera]

My brother was a teenager at in Tripler Army Medical Center at the time in a large ward with lots of men in there. Of course he was feeling sorry or himself until the helicopters started landing on the roof, all night long, and men with horrible burns were rushed in to the ward, packing it full.

Suddenly he did not feel so bad for himself seeing what others were enduring.

[greglepore]

Originally Posted by red 928

That could have gone so wrong so easily.

CV-59
1967 fire

RIP Senator McCain. Walked out of that fire.

[John Rogers]

The Enterprise had a similar fire to the one the Forrestal had and I went on board right after that one. In both of those the jet fuel ran down drains and into compartments on the 01, 02 and 03 levels where it caught lots of other stuff on fire! One of the guys that ended up working for me was in a "head", sitting on a toilet on the 02 level, when burning jet fuel came running in through a door. He made it out without a scratch!

[sammyg2]

I studied the above fires in detail a long time ago in fire fighting school (Univ. of Reno).
Almost gave me nightmares and I just watched video and read about them.
The most amazing part was that men without proper gear kept running in to fight the fire, wave after wave, even though they knew the ones before them died and that they would likely experience the same fate. They knowingly sacrificed their lives to save the lives of others and to save the ship. THAT is courage I have never known.

Most of our current fire-fighting techniques and equipment was developed by the navy as a result of ship fires.
As tragic as those incidents were, they probably resulted in many more lives being saved.
Still sux tho.