PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF TOM WIMBERLY, CAPTAIN, USN (Ret)
(XO of VF-74 "Be-Devilers" on 29 July 1967)

It's the flight deck of Forrestal at the start of the fire on July 29, 1967. I have close connections with that photo. The folded port wing shown is that of the F-4B Phantom I was manning at the start of the fire. I was amidships, port side, chained down with the engines running, no ground crew in sight. I looked back when the fire first started, and said to my RIO, LT(JG) Jim Martin (now deceased), "this is really going to screw up this launch." It looked like just one aircraft on fire. Little did I know. When the fire spread across the after end of the flight deck, I was anxious to get unchained and taxi forward. I told Jim that if no one came to unchain us, I would go into burner to try to break the tiedowns. At that moment, a plane captain named Dale Goldinger came running aft, toward the fire, and unchained me and also wingman John Orsburn's F-4, and we scooted up the deck. It was obvious we needed as much separation as possible from that fire. At about 1 minute 20 seconds after the fire started, the first bomb exploded. It was like it went high order like it was properly fuzed. The difference between the bombs exploding and the fuel tanks previously exploding was infinite. The bomb explosions severely jarred the whole ship. Until the first bomb went, I was calm. When the first bomb went, I switched to the extremely scared mode. My knees were knocking and doing a dance on the cockpit floor. Having taxiied forward, there were no tie-down chains. Goldinger showed up again and gave me the signal to do what plane captains did to avoid having to sit holding the brakes in the process of being towed. They would loosen the seat belt and put it around the emergency pneumatic brake handle, then tighten the seat belt. I did that and was satisfied the plane would be OK, so I got out. I headed for the ready room, thinking my RIO would follow. Reaching the ready room and not finding Jim behind me, I retraced my steps to the catwalk. There was Jim, taking photos. (RIO's were required to carry cameras to record battle damage if possible.) I am sure he got some of the most spectacular photos of the fire. We all credited him with taking the shot that John Newlin shows as photo of the day. Years later, when RADM Peter Booth published his books, the photo appears and Pete says he took it. The conflict about who took it never came up in my squadron, because Pete left the ship right after the fire to arrange a transfer to a Phantom squadron in the Gulf of Tonkin. The day after the fire, the Maintenance Chief came to me and said, "Mr. Martin blew the rear canopy off your F-4 before he got out. We told him about it and he denies it. But the rear canopy is missing; he must have done it." I asked Jim about it and he denied jettisoning the canopy. I had lots of other things to worry about so nothing else was said about it. Many, many years later I was looking at that photo, and behold, there's the rear cockpit canopy on the flight deck a hundred or two hundred feet aft of the plane. You can barely make it out in the photo John publishes; if you could see the same photo in the Forrestal cruise book, it's much clearer. Look for it on the flight deck; in the photo, it's just below the A-4 which is about to be engulfed in flames, just about the center of the photo. The view of the canopy is from the left rear of the canopy; the arc of the rear of the top of the canopy can be clearly seen. Wow, what a day.

P.S.: A human interest angle is that [Lieutenant Commander, and future] Sen. John McCain was manning one of the A-4's near the one that was hit by the Zuni. I have seen some stories that it was McCain's A-4 that was hit. I think that is incorrect. I believe it was the A-4 of LCDR Fred D. White (VA-46) which was struck by the Zuni. That's what was said in the aftermath of the fire. White did not survive.

Photos by LT(JG) Jim Martin,
via CDR John Newlin, USN (Ret)