1967 USS Forrestal fire
USS Forrestal on fire, the worst US carrier fire since WWII; USS Rupertus (DD-851) maneuvers to within 20 ft (6 m) to use fire hoses.
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| Time | About 10:50 a.m. local time |
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| Date | 29 July 1967 |
| Location | Gulf of Tonkin, 19°9′5″N 107°23′5″E / 19.15139°N 107.38472°E |
| 134 dead | |
| 161 injured | |
| cost to USN US$72 million | |
In July 1967, a fire broke out on board the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal. An electrical anomaly had caused the discharge of a Zuni rocket on the flight deck, triggering 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 (equivalent to $517 million today), not including the damage to aircraft. Future United States Senator John McCain and future four-star admiral and US Pacific Fleet Commander Ronald J. Zlatoper were among the survivors.
By 1967, the ongoing naval bombing campaign from Yankee Station represented by far the most intense and sustained air attack operation in the U.S. Navy's history, with monthly demand for general purpose bombs (e.g., "iron bombs") greatly exceeding new production. The on-hand supply of bombs had dwindled throughout 1966 and become critically low by 1967, particularly the new 1000-lb Mark 83, which the Navy favored for its power-to-size ratio: a carrier-launched A-4 Skyhawk, the Navy's standard light attack / ground attack aircraft of the period, could carry either a single 2000-lb bomb, or two 1000-lb bombs, with the ability to strike two separate hardened targets in a single sortie being seen as more desirable in most circumstances. Until 1971, the U.S. Air Force's primary ground attack aircraft in Vietnam was the much heavier, land-based, F-105 Thunderchief, which could simultaneously carry two 3,000-lb M118 bombs and four 750-lb M117 bombs (of which the Air Force had large stockpiles available), and thus that service did not need to rely as heavily on the limited supply of 1000-lb bombs as did the Navy.
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