Sailors to the End : The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It

Rating:
Summary: Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal...
Review: The fire on the Forrestal was the major Naval event of my career up to that time. I knew some of the men who were a part of her ships company and airwing. I later came to know some who had survived that day.

At the time of the fire, I knew that a major catastrophe had overtaken the ship and its' crew. Over the remaining years of my military career, I came to learn what (I thought) was the cause of this tragedy. A 'training film' on the disaster focused on the mobile 'starter' unit left running under the Zuni rocket was the basic cause.

It wasn't until I read this great book by Gregory A. Freeman that I learned "the rest of the story". The mobile unit was only the causitive agent. Lack of communications and the bypassing of safety regulations were also contributing factors. But most importantly was the Johnson/McNamara administration's decision to intensify the bombing effort against the North Vietnamese. This decision meant using outdated, dangerous ordinance. This fact was kept from the public (and from the rank and file) for years. It goes to the heart of the prosecution of this vile war. In essence they said "damn the personal prosecuting the war, just prosecute it".

More importantly than the above political statement is the fact that this book brought so close to me the heroism of those sailors onboard Forrestal, from the flight deck Chief Petty Officer who raced into the conflagration to supervise the fire fighting efforts, to the Doctors and Corpsmen in sick bay who dealt with the massive casualties that overcame them, to the Damage Control Officer who took "speed" to save his ship, to the brave young men in after steering who died doing what they were trained and ordered to do, to the brave and heroic Commanding Officer who fought with all his skills and leadership and was eventually successful in saving this magnificent ship.

I am not sure in this day and age if anybody in the United States questions the skill and bravery of the young men who defend her, but if they do, just spend a few bucks and pick up this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: Bravery, personified
Review: The fire on the Forrestal was the major Naval event of my career up to that time. I knew some of the men who were a part of her ships company and airwing. I later came to know some who had survived that day.

At the time of the fire, I knew that a major catastrophe had overtaken the ship and its' crew. Over the remaining years of my military career, I came to learn what (I thought) was the cause of this tragedy. A 'training film' on the disaster focused on the mobile 'starter' unit left running under the Zuni rocket was the basic cause.

It wasn't until I read this great book by Gregory A. Freeman that I learned "the rest of the story". The mobile unit was only the causitive agent. Lack of communications and the bypassing of safety regulations were also contributing factors. But most importantly was the Johnson/McNamara administration's decision to intensify the bombing effort against the North Vietnamese. This decision meant using outdated, dangerous ordinance. This fact was kept from the public (and from the rank and file) for years. It goes to the heart of the prosecution of this vile war. In essence they said "damn the personal prosecuting the war, just prosecute it".

More importantly than the above political statement is the fact that this book brought so close to me the heroism of those sailors onboard Forrestal, from the flight deck Chief Petty Officer who raced into the conflagration to supervise the fire fighting efforts, to the Doctors and Corpsmen in sick bay who dealt with the massive casualties that overcame them, to the Damage Control Officer who took "speed" to save his ship, to the brave young men in after steering who died doing what they were trained and ordered to do, to the brave and heroic Commanding Officer who fought with all his skills and leadership and was eventually successful in saving this magnificent ship.

I am not sure in this day and age if anybody in the United States questions the skill and bravery of the young men who defend her, but if they do, just spend a few bucks and pick up this wonderful book.

Rating:
Summary: First Rate Military History
Review: The tragic fire aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Forrestal, which claimed the lives of 134 U.S. servicemen and horribly wounded many more, was very much overshadowed by The Vietnam War, which the ship was then fighting. At a time when there were more casualties each week in the ground war and America's cities were erupting into racial and anti-war violence, the disaster quickly faded from the news. Now, author Gergory A Freeman has done a terrific service to both the victims and survivors with his fair, well-balanced and highly readable account.

Give Freeman credit right off the bat for not attempting to cash in on the celebrity interest potential of then-navy pilot John McCain's narrow escape by unjustly playing up McCain's involvement. In Freeman's story, McCain is just one more survivor, and one who made it out with only minor injuries. The real story is one of a preventable trajedy, and Freeman does not shy away from the laying the blame for the disaster where it belongs, on the political leadership of the time and on the navy bureaucracy.

Freeman's account of the fire itself and resulting ordinance explosions as seen through the eyes of the survivors is absolute riveting. He strikes just the right tone, relaying the horrible events without sensationalizing them. The book's title come from a particularly poignant moment in which three trapped sailors uncomplainingly performed a final vital duty for their shipmates even as they knew they were about to die. Theirs is just one of the many incredible stories that Freeman has unearthed.

Overall, "Sailors to the End" is an expertly written work of military history that should appeal to both military buffs as well as to general readers.

Rating:
Summary: Uncommon Heroics of Everyday Citizen-Sailors
Review: This is the perfect post-September 11th book: a moving account of the uncommon heroics of ordinary, everyday citizen-sailors. The heroes were, in the main, boys, really -- 20-, 21- and 22-year-olds -- who gallantly battled the conflagration that was quickly engulfing their ship in the Tonkin Gulf. (An accidental rocket launch had triggered a fuel-oil fire that, within 94-seconds, led to the "cook-off" and explosion of nine, unstable World War II-era, thousand-pound bombs.)

Author Gregory Freeman tells a poignant, at times heart-breaking, story. We see severely injured young men in the steering control, cut off by the spreading inferno and with no hope of rescue, slowly dying, but stoically executing orders until they expired. ("They never begged for mercy. They never whined. They never whimpered. They were sailors to the end.")
We see a young man -- his body charred beyond recognition -- lying in silence and patiently waiting to die, whose last thought is for the palpable saddness of his caregiver: "That's okay, you don't have to feel bad. I haven't done anything I'm ashamed of. I'm ready to go."

These ordinary, $150-a-month shiphands were the very definition of selflessness.

"Sailors to the End" is highly recommended for anyone looking to celebrate authentic American heroism.

Rating:
Summary: A Sad Tale That Could Have Been Better Told
Review: This narrative recounts the causes and consequences of the disastrous flight deck fire that engulfed USS Forrestal (then-CVA 58) in the Tonkin Gulf at the end of July 1967. When the smoke cleared 134 sailors were killed - often in the most agonizing manner imaginable - and more than 100 more were seriously burned or otherwise injured. The explanation of the how the fire started (technically from equipment failure, but the failure would never have occurred if plane handling crews had not deviated from safety regulations) and got out of control (obsolete ordnance exploded on the flight deck in less than one-and-a-half minutes, before the initial fire could be contained). To me that is the best part of the book.

The tales of the fire from the perspective of several young "citizen sailors" and the carriers experienced CO and wizened Engineering/Damage Control officer offer a heart wrenching view of the conditions faced by those fighting the inferno. Although some of the sailors exhibit "attitude problems" (as did I as a citizen sailor in the same era) they fight bravely with inadequate equipment and (according to the author) little fire line leadership (Freeman says lots of the equipment and the best trained firefighters were lost in the explosions at the beginning of the fire). The courage, tenacity and eventual success of the citizen sailors in saving the ship belies the snide, condescending remarks Defense Secretary Rusted recently made comparing the U.S.'s current military to supposedly inferior draft-era servicemen (the sailors, while not draftees per se were also not, by 2003 standards, "professionals"). The book would have been stronger if Freeman had tracked down some junior officers and senior petty officers who fought the fire, since there's virtually no account from anyone between E-4 and full Commander.

Overall I enjoyed the book and, sad though the story is, recommend it to anyone interested in aircraft carriers in general and the Vietnam-era Navy in particular. If you are knowledgeable about the Navy and carriers, be warned there are lots of errors (e.g., Forrestal was certainly NOT the most powerful carrier at the time, that honor clearly goes to Enterprise) and repeated wording errors really grate on a sailor's ears (e.g., ships don't have "mess halls" as Freeman repeats over and over, they have "mess decks"; also a quote from the CO addressing the crew as "comrades" (?!) rather than "shipmates" is improbable). A review of this book in the August 2003 Naval History magazine REALLY pans it and calls it "historical fiction", but I wouldn't go that far. There is a documentary on the Forrestal fire, Situation Critical - The U.S.S. Forrestal, also sold on Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: A Sad Tale That Could Have Been Better Told
Review: This narrative recounts the causes and consequences of the disastrous flight deck fire that engulfed USS Forrestal (then-CVA 58) in the Tonkin Gulf at the end of July 1967. When the smoke cleared 134 sailors were killed - often in the most agonizing manner imaginable - and more than 100 more were seriously burned or otherwise injured. The explanation of the how the fire started (technically from equipment failure, but the failure would never have occurred if plane handling crews had not deviated from safety regulations) and got out of control (obsolete ordnance exploded on the flight deck in less than one-and-a-half minutes, before the initial fire could be contained). To me that is the best part of the book.

The tales of the fire from the perspective of several young "citizen sailors" and the carriers experienced CO and wizened Engineering/Damage Control officer offer a heart wrenching view of the conditions faced by those fighting the inferno. Although some of the sailors exhibit "attitude problems" (as did I as a citizen sailor in the same era) they fight bravely with inadequate equipment and (according to the author) little fire line leadership (Freeman says lots of the equipment and the best trained firefighters were lost in the explosions at the beginning of the fire). The courage, tenacity and eventual success of the citizen sailors in saving the ship belies the snide, condescending remarks Defense Secretary Rusted recently made comparing the U.S.'s current military to supposedly inferior draft-era servicemen (the sailors, while not draftees per se were also not, by 2003 standards, "professionals"). The book would have been stronger if Freeman had tracked down some junior officers and senior petty officers who fought the fire, since there's virtually no account from anyone between E-4 and full Commander.

Overall I enjoyed the book and, sad though the story is, recommend it to anyone interested in aircraft carriers in general and the Vietnam-era Navy in particular. If you are knowledgeable about the Navy and carriers, be warned there are lots of errors (e.g., Forrestal was certainly NOT the most powerful carrier at the time, that honor clearly goes to Enterprise) and repeated wording errors really grate on a sailor's ears (e.g., ships don't have "mess halls" as Freeman repeats over and over, they have "mess decks"; also a quote from the CO addressing the crew as "comrades" (?!) rather than "shipmates" is improbable). A review of this book in the August 2003 Naval History magazine REALLY pans it and calls it "historical fiction", but I wouldn't go that far. There is a documentary on the Forrestal fire, Situation Critical - The U.S.S. Forrestal, also sold on Amazon.com.

Rating:
Summary: When Things Go Wrong on Carriers
Review: This story recounts how dangerous Aircraft Carriers may be even out of combat as the author describes how a series of failures on the USS Forrestal created one of worst naval accidents, killing 134 men in 1967, as the crew was preparing to launch an air offensive on Vietnam.

The story, which centers on a tragic fire, looks at the incident from various sailor's perspectives, and paints an excellent picture for the reador of real life on an aircraft carrier and the mindset of a group of young men battling for their survival againt two of a sailor's greatest enemies -- Fire and the Sea.

Rating:
Summary: A Gripping Tragedy, And A Strange Whitewash?
Review: This was a great story of brave men in a life and death situation. Through tragic mistakes the USS Forrestal lay off the Vietnam coast engulfed in fire and in danger of going down. But thanks to the heroic sailors and cool under pressure captain the ship was saved and later fully repaired.

I listened to the abridged audio version of this book. I thought Kevin Conway did an excellent job narrating this book and my attention never lagged once. The story and the narrating were as good as it gets. Inagine yourself with bombs "cooking off" around you with jet fuel spilling everywhere and death staring at you in the face. These sailors never wavered. There are some incredibly poignant passages in this book about men who knew they were going to die but still did their job. This is a great (audio) book!

Rating:
Summary: Don't Give up the Ship!!
Review: This was a great story of brave men in a life and death situation. Through tragic mistakes the USS Forrestal lay off the Vietnam coast engulfed in fire and in danger of going down. But thanks to the heroic sailors and cool under pressure captain the ship was saved and later fully repaired.

I listened to the abridged audio version of this book. I thought Kevin Conway did an excellent job narrating this book and my attention never lagged once. The story and the narrating were as good as it gets. Inagine yourself with bombs "cooking off" around you with jet fuel spilling everywhere and death staring at you in the face. These sailors never wavered. There are some incredibly poignant passages in this book about men who knew they were going to die but still did their job. This is a great (audio) book!

Rating:
Summary: Horror and Heroics
Review: When the USS _Forrestal_ was put into service in 1955, she was the biggest aircraft carrier in the world, able to carry twice as much fuel and weapons as the carriers that had preceded her, and the first one designed specifically for launching jet aircraft. When reassigned in 1967 to join ships already supporting the war in Vietnam, she had never seen a day of combat. Captain John Beling had assumed command of the ship the year before, an assignment that was the pinnacle for any naval aviator. For four days the _Forrestal_ joined in adding to the bombing missions over Vietnam. And then a horrible accident happened, which is now getting its first sufficient book length description. _Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It_ (William Morrow) by Gregory A. Freeman, a clear, three-part account of a disastrous fire at sea: what preceded it, the fire itself, and the aftermath. It is a dramatic and riveting account which at some points may have you in tears.

Freeman carefully explains how safety measures were overridden, causing a rocket from one on-deck fighter to be fired into another. More importantly, he shows how the Navy was using long-outdated bombs left over from before WWII in order to make it seem as if the administration had enough bombs to fight the Vietnam War. Not only were the bombs outdated, but they became touchy and more unsafe as the years passed. Beling knew of the problem, and insisted that he needed better bombs; but he had a job to do, and the old ones were the only ones he was going to get to do it. Newer bombs could stand a lot of heat, and the old ones could not. Much sooner than anyone expected, one of the bombs blew up, a thousand pounds of explosive impacting at zero range. Of the 35 crewmembers nearby, 27 were killed instantly or got fatal injuries, and among this number were the expert firefighting team. It was merely the start of the larger disaster, for eight more of the old bombs were to go off. Most of the crew below decks thought that enemy bombers had found the _Forrestal_ and were attacking.

There are horrific and at times inspiring stories are told here with enormous sympathy for men pushed beyond all limits. Slowly the large fire was brought under control, although for days afterwards there might be rekindled fires to fight. The rear of the ship was so torn up that access could only come by lowering sailors into the compartments, and bodies were still being found weeks after the fire. The ship limped home to Norfolk. Freeman explains the aftermath of the disaster and the ruination of Beling's career, but more importantly explains how it affected the many other veterans he interviewed. The voluminous reports on the disaster neglected the importance of the faulty bombs but placed most of the blame on the firefighting deficiencies of the crew, a point of view emphasized in the firefighting training all sailors now get. This has been an unfair burden surviving crewmembers have had to bear, but Freeman has found that they are still proud of their service and of their ship, which was decommissioned in 1993, having seen a total of those four days in combat during her entire time at sea. The veterans want to turn her into a museum. The 134 men who died have their names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and those whose bodies were never recovered have a monument near the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington. Now, too, they have an unforgettable volume that in recounting the horrors and the heroism of the incident will be among their most lasting and fitting monuments.