OT USS Washington Fire

Well ... at least no one was killed. Imagine what it was like on board the U.S.S. Oriskany back in 1966, off the coast of Vietnam. A fire starts when a crewman panics and throws a flare, which had accidentally ignited while being moved, into a storage locker located at the forward starboard corner of hangar bay 1. The locker contains some 650 other flares which ignite in turn. ( DOH ! )

The resulting fire takes three hours to control, kills 44, destroys or damages six aircraft, and puts the ORISKANY out of action for several months.

Chris

CCBlack wrote: : : Well ... at least no one was killed. : Granted, and a damn good thing.

However, I wonder how far the bloodletting will go. Sure, the press tells us about the Capt. and XO, but I wonder how many sailors lost at least a stripe?

Bruce

Back to the Oriskany fire for a bit ... I saw a Discovery Wings episode ... which was actually about the A-4 Skyhawk ... but they discussed the flare incident. The Capt. of the Oriskany at the time was interviewed. He said the whole thing could probably been avoided if the sailor had just tossed the damn thing overboard. But they figure the guy just panicked ... and tossed it in the locker instead. Wonder what ever happened to THAT squid ?

Chris

According to a retired master chief I work with, more than likely officers and chiefs will get some sort of letter in their official records; the ones that had to sign off that the spaces/procedures were being followed. So when they are up for promo/transfers, someone will be looking at their record, see the letter and .......

Andrew M wrote: : : According to a retired master chief I work with, more than likely officers : and chiefs will get some sort of letter in their official records; the ones : that had to sign off that the spaces/procedures were being followed. So when : they are up for promo/transfers, someone will be looking at their record, : see the letter and ....... : Hmmmm. I can understand the logic in that. I don't know if it is the best solution, but I can't suggest anything better.

I wonder - is this a situation that the capitan allowed to happen, as in not coducting "management by walking around"? Or just a collection of slobs in the wrong places at the wrong time?

And, yeah, I know the XO is resposible for the ships day-to day condition/operation. But, the capitan is still ultimately responsible.

Bruce

Actually, it looks like Zuni rockets are even more dangerous than flares...

I remember some quote that went along the lines of "The unfairness of the system with respect to one person ensures the fairness" (corrections wanted!). In other words, the responsibility sticks, no matter what the conditions. That's the way it should be, regardless.

Gernot Hassenpflug wrote: : : I remember some quote that went along the lines of "The unfairness of : the system with respect to one person ensures the fairness" : (corrections wanted!). In other words, the responsibility sticks, no : matter what the conditions. That's the way it should be, regardless. : Just to be clear - I am not shedding any tears for the XO or the capitan. Neither deserve a command after letting a dangerous situation develop and remain on "their" vessel.

Now, I know a carrier is a dang big ship, but there is a certain reason for "management by walking around", and if you don't know what your vessel took aboard, and what the dangerous stuff is, and insure that it was properly stowed, that is your problem.

What I was thinking about was some dumbass/FNG who perhaps signed off on the work being done, and never actually checked.

With the letter in their files, their career may well be over before it really got started. That is a harsh lesson, but, how do you "rehabilitate" somebody with such a mark in their folder? Give them a chance to screw up again? No, definitely not.

Bruce

...in my experience they end up doing a tour as Safety Officer.

I had a friend that was an Ordnanceman on USS Constellation (CV-64) a few years before it was decommissioned. During one of his cruises, somebody caught a FNG down in the magazine, sitting and spinning the little propeller on the fuse of a live Mk80 series...after calmly getting him to step away from the bomb, they put him straight on a helo off the ship...before the word spread and somebody got the chance to frag him.

He sent me a really great Harley t-shirt from Dubai...

Not to be pedantic but USS Washington usually refers to BB-56, the nuclear carriers is USS George Washington.

...I didn't start the fire...or the thread...

Then we must blame CNN, not anyone here....they wrote the story.

No problem...I get the same way about "F/A"...

snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net wrote: : : Then we must blame CNN, not anyone here....they wrote the story. : What, the news gets their facts wrong? Shocking, I say! Shocking! And how many people who "rely" on the news can even tell when these folks screw up? "crickets"

But, yes, when I saw this subject come up, I was wondering how a scrapped vessel caught fire...

Bruce