On this day in 1967: USS Forrestal fire

On July 29, 1967, an errant missile started a fire on the deck of the USS Forrestal, an aircraft carrier stationed in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam. It was a devastating tragedy, 134 sailors and marines were killed--including most of the first crew of firefighters sent to battle the blaze.

Michael Zak of the Grand Old Partisan has more:

As bombs and fuel exploded, Lt. Commander John McCain jumped out of his own plane and ran toward the flames -- yes, toward the flames -- attempting to rescue another pilot. An exploding bomb then injured McCain in the chest and legs.

With his own ship out of commission, McCain volunteered for duty aboard the USS Oriskany. Three months later, he was shot down. He spent five and a half years in a communist prison, much of that time in solitary confinement.

To learn more about the USS Forrestal fire, watch this video. Or this one from the McCain campaign.

More from Paul Alexander's Man Of The People, The Life of John McCain:

Naturally, the press coverage of the fire was extensive. One of the front page stories in the (New York) Times featured a striking photograph of McCain. His eyes, dark and foreboding, were looking away from the camera, and his face reflected shock and anguish. The article, "Start of Tragedy: Pilot Hears a Blast As He Checks Plane," described McCain as having "a disarming disregard for formal military speech or style," adding, "He is wiry, prematurely gray and does not take himself too seriously."

"We're professional military men and I suppose it's our war," McCain told the Times reporter, "and yet here were enlisted men who earn $150 a month and work 18 to 20 hours a day--and I mean manual labor--and certainly would have survived had they not stayed to help the pilots fight the fire. I've never seen such acts of heroism."

Technorati tags: politics Election John McCain McCain Republican On this day history Vietnam War New York Times