41 Years Ago

The Forrestal fire, the worst on any of the Navy's carriers, was 41 years ago this day in the Gulf of Tonkin. 134 sailors were killed due to malfunctioning weaponry followed by burning jet fuel, and it is widely viewed as one of the worst accidents in the post-WWII Navy (along with the Thresher). It took 24 hours to put out the blaze, and anyone in the Navy knows how dangerous a fire on a ship is. Coincidentally, John McCain (LCDR McCain at the time) was on the ship at the time (h/t Gateway Pundit for the vid).