October 26th 1966, we were all awakened with a call of "general quarters,all hands maned your battle stations"
We were in Tonkin Gulf ready to launch an air attack on North Vietnam, when a magnesium flare fire erupted in an flare locker in hangar bay one. We fort fires with fog foam, because we did not have any purple K which was needed to put out magnesium fires. We fought all the secondary fires till the magnesium burned itself out. We dumper bombs over the sides of the ship. the fire went on all day. At times we thought we had it under control and than it flashed back up totally unaffected. Final total 44 shipmates lost there lives. I think about that day and the great men we lost as if it were yesterday. Will never forget! The ship was the USS Oriskany CVA 34. I was a third class machinist mate and worked on the ships generators. Hello to all my shipmates across the country. Welcome home to all Vietnam Veterans, and to all that served our country.Thank You.
Peekskill, NY