This episode is dedicated to the 134 sailors and aviators who lost their lives aboard USS Forrestal (CVA-59) on July 29, 1967, to the 161 who were injured, and to every crew member who fought that fire to save their ship and their shipmates. We especially remember Joe’s shop mate, a fellow AME and second class petty officer who was only months from going home. We also honor all who served in the Vietnam War, and the families who waited for them.
Content advisory: This episode includes descriptions of a shipboard fire and explosions, death, burns, and serious injuries, including amputation. If you or a veteran you love is struggling, the Veterans Crisis Line is free and confidential, 24/7: call 988 then press 1, text 838255, or visit VeteransCrisisLine.net.
Joe Duarte grew up in Holbrook, Long Island, in a neighborhood his father built alongside aunts, uncles and cousins, with stretches spent in French Morocco and Chile while his father worked overseas. By 1965 he was 20, working construction and volunteering with the local fire department, and his Army draft notice had arrived. He went straight to the Navy recruiter. His draft date was November 9; on November 2 he was on a train to boot camp at Great Lakes. From there he went to A school in Memphis and became an AME, an Aviation Structural Mechanic (Safety Equipment), responsible for ejection seats, cockpit pressurization, pilots’ oxygen masks and the liquid oxygen that fed them.
Joe joined the VF-74 Be-Devilers at NAS Oceana, Virginia, working on the massive F-4 Phantom, and the squadron went to sea aboard USS Forrestal, a ship so big it took him twenty minutes to find the flight deck the first time. In June 1967 Forrestal set out for Vietnam, stopping in Brazil, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and crossing the equator, where Joe went from pollywog to shellback. He worked 12-hour shifts on the flight deck, drank black coffee when the milk ran out, and watched the crew move jets with a precision he still calls amazing. By late July the ship was on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin, flying strikes over North Vietnam.
On the morning of July 29, five days into combat operations, Joe was under an F-4 on the starboard side, preparing for the day’s second launch, when a Zuni rocket accidentally fired and struck an A-4 Skyhawk across the deck. Joe jumped into the catwalk and began handing out fire hoses until two more bombs exploded. He thought about jumping 90 feet to the water, then ran forward across the aft elevator instead. Only on the other side did he notice that shrapnel had cut through the bone of his left arm. Helicoptered to USS Oriskany, he waited seven hours while sicker men went first, then had the bone set with little morphine left. Back home, his family received telegrams, and a chaplain came to the door with a $10,000 check, because the Navy believed he had been killed. The fire took the lives of 134 men, including Joe’s shop mate, who was only months from going home.
Joe was flown home through Clark Air Base, Japan and Alaska to St. Albans Naval Hospital in New York, where he spent nine months in rehab. Two fingers on his left hand never fully recovered, and a piece of shrapnel is still in his chest. After his discharge he worked at a Cadillac dealership, went back to construction, and spent 15 years handling homeowner insurance claims before he and his wife, Ann, retired to South Carolina. Decades later, a book about the Forrestal finally showed him the full picture of what happened that morning. “I’ll never forget it,” Joe says. “I’m really lucky to be alive.”
Watch Joe’s full episode, and every episode of Ask A Vet, on YouTube, or listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
YouTube: https://youtu.be/G9EW2p_u-30
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4UvdMjkOkOgoHM2yIckhlh
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ask-a-vet-podcast/id1854840136