Old Memories

Well Ron you probably saw me. I ran behind the island all the way to the edge of the elevator. Then I realized I wasn’t actually on fire but pretty badly burned on the face and hands and headed for sick bay.

After the A/C got off the cat they lost fire to the starboard engine and the RIO punched out. The Skipper got the engine to refire and continued on to Oceana and hid the A/C behind another hanger from the awaiting crowd because the canopy was gone and there was a lot of damage from the fire. He did not know what happened to his RIO and did not want to alarm the people there until the true extent of the fire aboard ship was known. (The RIO splashed and was picked up by the plane guard unharmed).

FastEagle

Sorry about all this chit chat in the photo section folks but it's not often you run into someone that was in the same place as you were 42 and a half years ago.

This fire we are talking about happened on the USS Independence (CVA-62) in December of 1966. We had just completed a 7 month deployment to the South China Sea in support of our land forces in Viet-Nam. The Airwing was flying off to their home bases and the first A/C to shoot was a F4B from VF-41 with the Skipper at the controls. The center line fuel tank (600 Gallons) burst on the cat shot and was lit off by the Phantom's afterburners. Seventeen people were burnt. The fire was quickly brought under control and all A/C not damaged were flown off that day. Only one person jumped off the ship and he was quickly recovered.

FastEagle