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Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful account of an emergency at sea...
Review: As a sailor myself maybe I just have a soft spot for the guys on the USS Forrestal who lived through an incredible disaster at sea during the Vietnam war. I can attest that what you read here is still taught in shipboard firefighting training sessions in the US Navy.Freeman does an admirable job of portraying a chaotic and unprecedented event in history. In 1967 an accidental missile firing on the flight deck of the USS Forrestal struck John McCain's plane, starting a series of events that ended in the deaths of more than a hundred brave sailors. What really stood out for me in this story is the heroism of ordinary guys risking their lives to save the ship, themselves and their shipmates. WARNING: There are really gory descriptions of some of the casualties so be prepared to be shocked.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful account of an emergency at sea...
Review: As a sailor myself maybe I just have a soft spot for the guys on the USS Forrestal who lived through an incredible disaster at sea during the Vietnam war. I can attest that what you read here is still taught in shipboard firefighting training sessions in the US Navy. Freeman does an admirable job of portraying a chaotic and unprecedented event in history. In 1967 an accidental missile firing on the flight deck of the USS Forrestal struck John McCain's plane, starting a series of events that ended in the deaths of more than a hundred brave sailors. What really stood out for me in this story is the heroism of ordinary guys risking their lives to save the ship, themselves and their shipmates. WARNING: There are really gory descriptions of some of the casualties so be prepared to be shocked.
Rating:
Summary: The 1967 fire on the U.S.S. Forrestal.
Review: This is a great read, and it took me all of three days to read this story of the fire on the U.S.S. Forrestal. I am surprised this book did not become a bigger seller than others. Freeman does a great job of detailing the life on this carrier and the result of the fire and deaths as a result of the accidental firing of the Zuni rockets. One gets a sense of purpose of those people who work their lives on the carriers.
This book taught the value of following procedures in dangerous situations. Those who circumvented the rules indirectly caused the firing the rocket into McCain's aircraft. The government using old WWII ordinance also bears some of the blame. The young crew are to be truly commended for fighting such a dangerous blaze at the risk of their lives. Their actions saved the ship. Freeman tells an amazing story.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sad Tale That Could Have Been Better Told
Review: This narrative recounts the causes and consequences of the disastrous flight deck fire that engulfed USS Forrestal (then-CVA 58) in the Tonkin Gulf at the end of July 1967. When the smoke cleared 134 sailors were killed - often in the most agonizing manner imaginable - and more than 100 more were seriously burned or otherwise injured. The explanation of the how the fire started (technically from equipment failure, but the failure would never have occurred if plane handling crews had not deviated from safety regulations) and got out of control (obsolete ordnance exploded on the flight deck in less than one-and-a-half minutes, before the initial fire could be contained). To me that is the best part of the book.
The tales of the fire from the perspective of several young "citizen sailors" and the carriers experienced CO and wizened Engineering/Damage Control officer offer a heart wrenching view of the conditions faced by those fighting the inferno. Although some of the sailors exhibit "attitude problems" (as did I as a citizen sailor in the same era) they fight bravely with inadequate equipment and (according to the author) little fire line leadership (Freeman says lots of the equipment and the best trained firefighters were lost in the explosions at the beginning of the fire). The courage, tenacity and eventual success of the citizen sailors in saving the ship belies the snide, condescending remarks Defense Secretary Rusted recently made comparing the U.S.'s current military to supposedly inferior draft-era servicemen (the sailors, while not draftees per se were also not, by 2003 standards, "professionals"). The book would have been stronger if Freeman had tracked down some junior officers and senior petty officers who fought the fire, since there's virtually no account from anyone between E-4 and full Commander. Overall I enjoyed the book and, sad though the story is, recommend it to anyone interested in aircraft carriers in general and the Vietnam-era Navy in particular. If you are knowledgeable about the Navy and carriers, be warned there are lots of errors (e.g., Forrestal was certainly NOT the most powerful carrier at the time, that honor clearly goes to Enterprise) and repeated wording errors really grate on a sailor's ears (e.g., ships don't have "mess halls" as Freeman repeats over and over, they have "mess decks"; also a quote from the CO addressing the crew as "comrades" (?!) rather than "shipmates" is improbable). A review of this book in the August 2003 Naval History magazine REALLY pans it and calls it "historical fiction", but I wouldn't go that far. There is a documentary on the Forrestal fire, Situation Critical - The U.S.S. Forrestal, also sold on Amazon.com.
Rating:
Summary: When Things Go Wrong on Carriers
Review: This story recounts how dangerous Aircraft Carriers may be even out of combat as the author describes how a series of failures on the USS Forrestal created one of worst naval accidents, killing 134 men in 1967, as the crew was preparing to launch an air offensive on Vietnam. The story, which centers on a tragic fire, looks at the incident from various sailor's perspectives, and paints an excellent picture for the reador of real life on an aircraft carrier and the mindset of a group of young men battling for their survival againt two of a sailor's greatest enemies -- Fire and the Sea.
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