{"id":75575,"date":"2017-10-26T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=75575"},"modified":"2017-10-25T19:26:19","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T23:26:19","slug":"guest-post-john-mccain-and-the-uss-forrestal-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=75575","title":{"rendered":"Guest post; John McCain and the USS Forrestal fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Atkron sends us the following, his work on John McCain and the fire on the USS Forrestal;<\/em><\/p>\n

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I\u2019m not a big fan of John McCain, ever since he took the side of Airbus over Boeing in the whole new Aerial Refueling Tanker fiasco from around ten years ago. I think, like many politicians, John McCain is in the pockets of special interest groups. <\/p>\n

All that aside, McCain did not initiate the fire that claimed 164 lives onboard USS Forrestal on July 29, 1967. The attached meme states that McCain was showing off, and caused a wet start which in turn started the fire that turned into a tragedy.<\/p>\n

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What did cause the fire?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pulled ground safety pins and stray voltage in the armament system caused a Zuni Rocket to fire off from the F-4 it was loaded on, and into an A-4 (which may have been McCain\u2019s or the aircraft directly beside his.) This first explosion released all the fuel in the stricken A-4 onto the deck underneath an entire row of Attack aircraft loaded for the days strike missions inside enemy territory. Eventually the flames started cooking off the ordnance, the first of these explosions took out Chief Ferrier, and most of the repair locker responsible for flight deck firefighting. The chief is the man shown on the PLAT footage running into the flames with a PKP Bottle that disappears when the ordnance explodes.<\/p>\n

Many mistakes were made that day, most of which were unknown errors until the analysis provided the cause. The US Navy, like many other organizations, write the vast majority of their safety instructions in blood. Meaning, that someone has to get injured or killed before something changes. Here is what the Navy learned:<\/p>\n

1)\tPrior to anything being loaded onto a weapons station a stray voltage check must be performed
\n2)\tGround safety pins will only be pulled right before taxiing (while ashore), at the runway hold short (ashore), or at the catapult (while at-sea).
\n3)\tRepair lockers will no longer be utilized on the flight deck
\n4)\tAll personnel that work on, or around, the flight deck will be flight deck firefighting certified
\n a.\tCertification involves actually fighting fires in a training environment
\nThe people spreading this lie have obviously never worked in Naval Aviation (USN\/USMC), and most definitely they never worked a day on the flight deck otherwise they would realize a few glaring discrepancies in their narrative.
\nA)\tA wet start is when the pilot applies too much throttle before igniting the engine
\n a.\tThink of it like flooding the engine of your car
\nB)\tA wet start would be recognized by the Plane Captain (PC) as a mist exiting the tail pipe
\n a.\tThe PC would then continue to point aft while fanning his face with his other hand
\n b.\tThe pilot will recognize this to mean wet start
\n c.\tThe pilot and PC will then windmill the engine until the tail pipe is free from vapor
\nC)\tWet starts do not cause fires, a wet start CAN cause a Hot Start
\n a.\tThe PC upon seeing flames come out of the tail pipe would continue to point aft, and this time draw a sideways lazy 8 in the air with his other hand
\n b.\tThe pilot would recognize this to mean Hot Start
\n c.\tThe pilot and PC will windmill the engine until the flames go away
\nD)\tMcCain\u2019s airplane was tail over water (TOW) how would flames going out of an exhaust ejector start a huge fire if the flames were headed out over the water?
\n a.\tThis assumes he had a wet start\/hot start
\nE)\tPlane Captains are trained to recognize these scenarios, and must go to a board review in order to become qualified as a Plane Captain for their type aircraft.
\n a.\tI was a Plane Captain for A-7E Corsair II\u2019s and F\/A-18C Hornets
\nF)\tNot one swinging dick that was on deck that day fault McCain for the fire
\n a.\tQuestion has been asked multiple times on the Forrestal Facebook Group<\/p>\n

I am sick and tired of this story about McCain being at fault, he may be a lot of things\u2026but he is not responsible for killing 164 men, and injuring another 161.
\nHere, watch Trial by Fire:<\/p>\n