Sailors to the End

The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal was preparing to launch attacks into North Vietnam when one of its jets accidentally fired a rocket into an aircraft occupied by pilot John McCain. A huge fire ensued and McCain barely escaped before a 1000-pound bomb on his plane exploded causing a chain reaction with other bombs on surrounding planes. The crew struggled for days to extinguish the fires but in the end the tragedy took the lives of 134 men. For thirty-five years the terrible loss of life has been blamed on the sailors themselves but this meticulously documented history shows that they were truly the victims and heroes.