Men of Forrestal Deserve Much Better
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Sailors to the End
by Gregory A. Freeman
William Morrow & Co., Inc.
2002
The men—the heroes—of the USS Forrestal deserve better.
Sailors to the End: The Deadly Fire on the USS Forrestal and the Heroes Who Fought It by Gregory A. Freeman (July 2002, William Morrow, $25.95) is, for those unaware or only superficially aware of the events depicted, an engaging, heartbreaking, and powerful read.
It will make the basis for a good 2000-ish special effects movie.
Freeman—an “award-wining journalist”—however, misplaced his journalistic tools when writing this book.
Forty-one years ago, on Saturday, July 29, 1967, the Virginia-born and based USS Forrestal, the first of the super-carriers, was racked by fires and explosions while on Yankee Station off the North Vietnamese coast. It started when a rocket accidentally fired from an F-4 Phantom II fighter hit the fuel tank of a bomb-laden A-4 Skyhawk. One hundred thirty-four sailors and airmen died, hundreds more were wounded, many horribly. Forrestal was but one unlucky explosion from the sea bottom.
Sailors to the End attempts to relate the story in the human terms of the crew who lived the horror of that day.
When the minutia that puts the stamp of veracity onto a subject known by a reader isn’t there or—worse—is wrong, it paints the whole work. Such is the case with this book. Freeman should have hired a competent editor who knows something about the Navy and aircraft carriers. Plus he should have interviewed at least a few of the principals he quoted. Some of the minutia: His description of the catapult launching mechanism more accurately describes that in use today, not the method Forrestal used 41 years ago. An illustration showing the placement of aircraft on deck at the time of the fire is inaccurate and uses F-16—a current Air Force model—outlines and a generic outline to illustrate four different types of aircraft. He uses the term “aviation groups” when making reference to the two fighter squadrons aboard Forrestal. The “head knock” in an A-4 was generally called the “head knocker.”
We learn not only that “the Midway-class ships . . . had played such important roles in World War II” (What were those roles if the first, Midway, was commissioned eight days after the Japanese surrender?) but also that oxygen is the “quintessential fuel for any fire.” That’s not aviation or Navy; it’s bad science, sloppy editing, and poor journalism.
These alone do not make for a bad book, not even for what qualifies as history in today’s pop writings. What does make a bad book is an obvious deliberate omission.
From various citations, the reader can tell Freeman read in part and relied to some degree on the definitive government report on the fire: the Basic Final Investigative Report Concerning the Fire on Board the USS Forrestal (CVA-59). Indeed, it is listed in his bibliography.
Throughout the book, one of the central characters is Lieutenant Commander John S. McCain III, now the senior senator from Arizona. Freeman cites—as do many other sources including the senator—that it was McCain’s Skyhawk that was struck by the Zuni rocket.
However, the first sentence of the Investigative Report at the behest of Rear Admiral Forsyth Massey, Commander in Chief U.S. Atlantic Fleet, states that “A review of the voluminous material contained in the Report of Investigation establishes the central fact that a ZUNI rocket was inadvertently fired from an F-4 aircraft (#110) and struck the external fuel tank of an A-4 aircraft (#405) . . . ”
McCain’s aircraft number was 416.
This is not to imply that McCain is engaging in deceit and others are perpetuating a myth. Quite the contrary; it is in the literal heat of such an occurrence that observation and recollection have their limits. This is simply a matter of written fact as determined by a duly appointed and highly technical investigative body.
Nowhere in the book is the statement of fact as found by the investigative body noted. A good journalist would note the statement of fact no matter what his beliefs. Freeman did not.
What is worse is that the pilot of #405, Lieutenant Commander Fred D. White, is not mentioned anywhere in the book with the sole exception under the list of dead. His rank and pilot status are not mentioned.
White was one of only three pilots killed that day. The others are named as is a description of the occurrence of their deaths. On the previously cited drawing, of the five aircraft involved in the center of the conflagration, all have the pilot’s names beside them, except one. The one in the center. White’s #405.
This is so obvious, it makes one wonder why—if you knew about White in the first place. Reading Sailors to the End, how would one ever know of Fred White?
#405 and Lieutenant Commander White throw a monkey wrench into an otherwise good structure. Maybe this review shouldn’t have mentioned them either.
The final insult to the memory of those who fought for their ship and died so bravely is that many of them aren’t given their due. One would hope that the intention was to spare family members additional grief. It doesn’t read that way.
More than a few can be easily identified by anyone with access to the Investigative Report. They are not. The more fortunate ones get first names or nicknames. One of the dead so named, however, was not on the deceased list.
Then there are questions concerning the principals.
More than a full page is devoted to Captain—then Lieutenant (j.g.)—Dave Dollarhide’s experiences. Dollarhide was never interviewed by Freeman. Dollarhide told me so when I interviewed him. McCain’s Skyhawk was between that of Dollarhide on the left and White’s on the right. Freeman has Dollarhide escaping by going over the nose of the aircraft, when with fire all around the right of his A-4, Dollarhide jumped over the left sill. Freeman also misidentified his rescuer.
Senator McCain’s actions were described including that “he heard two loud clanks.” “I never said that. I don’t know where he got that,” the senator told this reviewer. The author never interviewed McCain according to the senator. I did.
Admittedly, there is a little sniping in this review. All the shots, however, are warranted. Many of the proud crew of Forrestal will look to this book as their story. Rightly so. It is, but, there are crucial points, which make it significantly less than what it could and should have been.
The definitive book on the gallant men and their ship has yet to be written.
Reviewed September 2008.
