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Any Navy Nam.. Vets

Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited September 2002 in General Discussion
My uncle served in Nam on the USS Forestal..Any one on here maybe served on the same ship...He was on the ship when it blew up..



His name:
Walter O'Quinn
Nickname: Gator

Harleeman1030@aol.com

Be quiet honey i know what i am doing ...
!!!!!KaBOOM!!!!!
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  • dads-freeholddads-freehold Member Posts: 1,361 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    greetings, iwas on the ranger cva61 for a while. respt submitted dads-freehold
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  • SUBMARINERSUBMARINER Member Posts: 1,362 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    deepest respect....that boat was an ace of davey jones locker.we saw training films of it in boot camp.everyone reffered to it as the "forrestfire"

    SUBMARINE SAILOR,TRUCK DRIVER,RUSTY WALLACE FAN AND AS EVERYONE SO OFTEN POINTS OUT PISS POOR TYPIST e-mail:WNUNLEY@USIT.NET
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  • lokdok1lokdok1 Member Posts: 383 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    We also called it the "USS Zippo"

    If you don't know your rights, you dont't have any
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    USS Tawakoni(ATF-114) in the summer of 1972. We towed the USS Warrington back from Viet Nam to Subic Bay after she ran over the mine. As an aside my first wife's father was the OIC of the helo det on USS Forrestal during the fire. LCDR Caron was his name. He started the day with 4 helos and by the end of the day he had one that could fly. The movie about the fire that was shown to every DC class and fire fighting class since then was called "Trial by Fire". Beach
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  • The firearms consultantThe firearms consultant Member Posts: 716 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Not Navy, an Army vet. We did land on a Navy supply ship with our Army helicopter once. It was during the Army-Navy football game. While we were all in the ships store, some Navy guys took masking tape and spelled out "Beat Army" on the bottom of our Huey. We did't know it was there until the tower pointed it out on our return to Duc Pho. You Navy guys, what a bunch of characters!
    John

    I might not always tell you the truth, but I will never lie to you!
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  • 22WRF22WRF Member Posts: 3,385
    edited November -1
    As per Beach, I have seen the training film hundreds of time as DC/FF instructor at FTG Pearl Harbor.

    It's a real eye opener for how dangerous Flt Ops are.

    I Refuse to be a VictimGrumpy old man

    Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it
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  • gunner@nwinet.comgunner@nwinet.com Member Posts: 23 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    I was on the USS Rupertus DD-851 on the day of the Forestal explosion. We were on plane guard station a thousand yards astern of her when she erupted. We immediately went to General Quarters. I was the Mount Captain in Our forward 5" mount. When I stuck my head out and saw the smoke and flame towering over Forestal, my first thought was that some hot shot NV pilot had snuck one into her and we were under air attack. The formation turned into the wind to try to keep the fire from spreading forward and the word was passed that it was an accident. As we turned we could see people in the water so we slowed enough to launch our moter whale boat and also tossed several inflatable life rafts and a lot of life jackets over the side. We spent the next several hours alongside Forestal as close as the skipper could get us while doing about 15 knots. Forestal had 5"/54 gun mount sponsons along her port side and the fire was threatening the magazines. It was so hot that we couldn't stay topside so we lashed 2 1/2" fire hoses to our gun barrels and trained and elevated the guns from inside the mounts to play water on the fires and cool the magazines. Meanwhile crews on Forestal's flight deck were jettisoning ordnance and aircraft debris all around us. I remember looking out my Mount Captain's hatch and seeing a burning plane overhanging the edge of the flight deck. Molten metal was dripping on to our focs'l. Our Whale boat crew picked up several guys and also a couple of bodies. We had no casualties on the Rupertus. A few guys with sunburns from exposure to the heat. One of our crew was on the Forestal visiting his brother. They were both 3rd class Damage Controlmen and both were killed. It definitely was a day that I haven't forgotten. I can only imagine what it must have been like on Forestal.

    Gunner
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  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    He never really talked about nam or what happened that day..I know he was burnt pretty bad helping some guy's out..In the Forestal book he's one of the boxers and also one of the guy's on the fire hose..(i am sure lots of guy's were on the fire hoses)..My grandmother has the book..I am planing on going to PA. next year to take a tour of the boat..I know it was a long shot on here was juat wanting to see..Thanks to all you guy's who served...

    Harleeman1030@aol.com

    NRA MEMBER
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  • 22WRF22WRF Member Posts: 3,385
    edited November -1
    http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/histories/cv59-forrestal/forrestal-fire.html

    I Refuse to be a VictimGrumpy old man

    Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it
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  • dads-freeholddads-freehold Member Posts: 1,361 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    greetings, hey harl'eman, there was a movement to move it to the tampa bay area a year or so ago , you might want to check and see if it's still in pa before going. respt submitted dads-freehold
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  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    22 wrf Thanks man

    She's in R.I. now i do need to check up..Anyone interrested in going on a Motorcycle ride next year in early august..I will be leaving Florida on the 2nd and meeting my brother in Iowa.....Then from there we are going to sturgis for a memory ride...Last time we were all together brother,uncle,dad,and I ....Sturgis 1993.....SO thanks again to you guy's

    Harleeman1030@aol.com

    NRA MEMBER
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  • TxsTxs Member Posts: 17,809 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    beach-I didn't realize there was a USS Tawakoni. This name comes from
    an Indian tribe native to my part of the country and is seen on lots of things around here.

    I'm not too familiar with USN lingo. What type of ship was/is this? Any idea where I could read the history of this ship on line?
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  • 22WRF22WRF Member Posts: 3,385
    edited November -1
    USS Tawakoni ATF 114 Fleet Tug (Ocean Going)
    Homeport Pearl Harbor, been to sea on her a few times.

    http://www.nafts.net/tawakoni.htm

    I Refuse to be a VictimGrumpy old man

    Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it
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  • wundudneewundudnee Member Posts: 6,108 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I got to see the USS Forrestal when we were in Pensacola to pin my sons flight wings on. His mom did the honors. He took his midshipmans cruise on the Forrestal and got to take his first cat shot in a EA6-B retrofitted to be a refueler. He served two tours on the Nimitz and had over two hundred landings. He was a NFO on an EA6-B. He always said that the first time he went off the carrier he knew that they had screwed up and he was going to die.

    ....................
    AD ASTRA PER ASPERA

    To the stars through difficulties
    standard.jpg
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    Txs....USS Tawakoni was a Fleet Tug, about 205 feet long and weighing about 1000 tons but capable of pulling a 1000 ft, 90,000 ton aircraft carrier across an ocean at 3-4 knots. Tawakoni was launched early in WW II and in continuous commission until about 1975. She was decommed and I believe sold to a South American Navy as a patrol craft. Virtually all of the old Fleet Tugs were named after various Indian Tribes of the United States. As an interesting side note during the VietNam War Tawakoni had the distinction of being the United States warship with the most number of aerial kills. She had 4 Japanese aircraft from WWII!!!! But what the hell...a kill is a kill!! And don't you think we didn't let the crudes(cruiser destroyer) weinies know it! Beach
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  • 22WRF22WRF Member Posts: 3,385
    edited November -1
    Beach

    The USS STERETT DLG-31/CG-31 had 4 MIG and 2 Surface kills in 72.
    Including the MIG that hit the Higbee.
    Did you mean Gun Kills??

    I Refuse to be a VictimGrumpy old man

    Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of All Those that Threaten it
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  • BullzeyeBullzeye Member Posts: 3,560
    edited November -1
    The fire started when a rocket pod on a Skyhawk short-circuted and shot a Zuni across the flight deck, right?
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  • Harleeman1030Harleeman1030 Member Posts: 1,505 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I do not know how it started like i said before he didn't talk about the War nor the ship much...But your close i have heard it was a bomb or something that went off to start it all..

    Harleeman1030@aol.com

    NRA MEMBER
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  • beachmaster73beachmaster73 Member Posts: 3,011 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    22wrf....I think but am not completely certain that 3 of Steritt's Mig kills were AIC controlled kills by F-4s for which Steritt received credit as well as the pilots involved. I can't remember the Master Chief Radarman's name right now but I believe he had those kills on Steritt as well as 2 kills on Chicago that also made him an ace of sorts. And yes Tawakoni's kills were 3 Zeros and 1 Kate all made by its guns. Beach


    P.S. Also I think Steritt's real kill was the NTDS tie in using Steritt's radars and the Talos Missile on Long Beach when the North Vietnamese MIGs were flying outside of Steritt's missile envelope and she controlled a TALOS shot by Long Beach over a 100 miles to the South. I haven't researched this lately; am just remembering I think some long suppressed information from TACGRUTRAININGPAC when I was a youngster. Beach
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