American History

... sustaining second and third degree burns rescuing another pilot trapped in his plane.

When I was in, the Forestall was still fresh news. The Navy has cameras going all the time all over the ship and flight deck. We were shown the films from the Forestal showing what was happening all over the ship as it happened, uncut.

A jet warmer got backed up to the nose of a heat seeking missile. It went off. One of the more dramatic scenes were five guys on a fire team running across the flight deck with a hose to get to the fire when some ordinance went off and in the shockwave, the men and the hose just disappeared.

That film made me glad to be a bubblehead, and also caused me to pay close attention at fire suppression school, where we burnt and put out a many time 'rescued' fighter plane. And smelled like kerosene for the rest of the day. Tip: stay out of the smoke as much as possible.