page_title: 1967 USS Forrestal fire
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 1967 USS Forrestal fire / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Forrestal (CVA-59) underway at sea on 31 May 1962, while preparing for her fifth deployment. Forrestal, with assigned Carrier Air Group 8 (CVG-8) was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea from 3 August 1962 to 2 March 1963. Note that the carrier has McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom II jet fighters of Fighter Squadron 74 (VF-74) "Be-Devilers" in her air group. This was the first operational deployment of the Phantom II.
context_page_description: On 29 July 1967, a fire broke out on board the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal after an electrical anomaly caused a Zuni rocket on a F-4B Phantom to fire, striking an external fuel tank of an A-4 Skyhawk. The flammable jet fuel spilled across the flight deck, ignited, and triggered a chain-reaction of explosions that killed 134 sailors and injured 161. At the time, Forrestal was engaged in combat operations in the Gulf of Tonkin, during the Vietnam War. The ship survived, but with damage exceeding US$72 million, not including the damage to aircraft. Future United States Senator John McCain and future four-star admiral and U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Ronald J. Zlatoper were among the survivors. Another on-board officer, Lieutenant Tom Treanore, later returned to the ship as its commander and retired an admiral.
  The disaster prompted the Navy to revise its fire fighting practices. It also modified its weapon handling procedures and installed a deck wash down system on all carriers. The newly established Farrier Fire Fighting School Learning Site in Norfolk, Virginia was named after Chief Gerald W.
caption: Since her commissioning in 1955, Forrestal spent her service alternating between the North Atlantic and Mediterranean; her departure from Norfolk in June 1967 was her first WESTPAC deployment.
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