Gerald Wyatte Farrier

The database page for Gerald Wyatte Farrier

26 Feb 2001 A shipmate who remembers a hero. Chief Farrier was killed leading the initial fire parties in the battle against the fire on USS FORRESTAL, 29 July 1967, on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Farrier and all of his repair party (Repair 8) were killed in the first bomb explosion.

On 29 July 1967 the USS FORRESTAL was conducting combat operations off the coast of North Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin. FORRESTAL had joined USS ORISKANY and USS BON HOMME RICHARD five days earlier. The ship was preparing to launch a major strike, and many fully fueled and armed aircraft were parked about the deck. At 10:52 AM a 5" ZUNI rocket accidentally fired from a F-4 Phantom parked on the starboard side of the ship and pointed inboard. The rocket impacted an armed A-4 Skyhawk (piloted by then-LCDR, now Senator, John McCain) parked on the port side. The rocket's impact dislodged and ruptured the Skyhawk's 400-gallon external fuel tank and ignited the jet fuel which poured out. A 1000-pound bomb also fell to the deck, into the spreading pool of flaming jet fuel. Within 90 seconds the bomb "cooked off" and detonated. That explosion resulted in a chain reaction as the closely-packed aircraft were first engulfed in and then contributed to a massive fire with repeated high-order bomb detonations. The ship's "plat" cameras, mounted on the island and embedded in the deck itself, provided ample video coverage of the initial accident and the subsequent catastrophe. Chief Petty Officer Farrier can be seen in the plat tapes running toward McCain's Skyhawk immediately after the rocket strike. The fuel tank had already ruptured and burning fuel was spreading around the aircraft. Chief Farrier had, as his weapon against this blaze, a hand-held fire extinguisher. He had not yet reached the Skyhawk when the first detonation occurred . . . he simply disappeared in the blast. A number of air- and deck crew were trapped in the inferno; many died there, while others were able to escape to the deck-edge catwalks. Outside the rapidly spreading fire, the flight deck crew immediately began an effort to contain the blaze. The on-deck firefighting crews rallied after the first explosion and attacked the fire, only to disappear in the second, and larger, round of explosions. The plat tapes show the decimated firefighters recruiting help from anyone in the vicinity, and these make-shift crews once again pressed into the growing inferno. The third round of detonations cleared the deck of men and fire-fighting gear, but within a minute more crewmen from the forward deck and below-deck areas had reconstituted fire-fighting teams and were working their way aft. Over a dozen 1,000 and 500 pound bombs detonated within the first few minutes of the fire, punching holes through the 3" armor plating of the flight deck. Flaming fuel poured through those holes, into the working and berthing spaces on the O-3 level, then down into the aft hangar bay. Numerous smaller explosions occurred as lesser weapons, ranging from the Skyhawk's cannon ammunition to 5" rocket warheads, detonated. Although it was 13 hours and more before the last fire was extinguished, FORRESTAL's crew did put it out . . . but at the cost of 134 dead and hundreds more injured. FORRESTAL left Yankee Station under her own power, steaming to Subic Bay for temporary repairs before returning to her home port (Norfolk, Virginia). USS FORRESTAL (CVA-59) web sites The Virtual Wall's Forrestal Memorial Paul H. Friedman's Forrestal Home Page USS Forrestal Museum Site USS Forrestal Association Richard's USS Forrestal page

The point-of-contact for this memorial is a shipmate. rushd@naswi.navy.mil  26 Feb 2001

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With all respect
Jim Schueckler, former CW2, US Army
Ken Davis, Commander, United States Navy (Ret)
Channing Prothro, former CAP Marine
Last updated 07/21/2003