ORISKANY FIRE 26 OCTOBER 1966

Today, we pay our respects to the following officers and men of ORISKANY who died in or as a result of the fires that swept her forward compartments on 26 October 1966:

ORISKANY launched her first combat sorties on 08 May 1965, flying more than 12,000 combat sorties before returning to San Diego on 16 Dec 1965. She made a quick turn-around and departed for her second Vietnam deployment in late May 1966. She conducted combat operations from her arrival on Yankee Station until 26 Oct 1966.

At 0728 26 October fire broke out in a forward magazine and raged through 5 decks, claiming the lives of 44 sailors. Many of those killed were veteran combat pilots who, a few hours earlier, had flown on raids over Vietnam. Serious damage to the carrier ended ORISKANY’s WestPac deployment and following limited repairs in Subic Bay (RP) she returned to San Diego on 03 Nov 1966. Four months later ORISKANY departed the San Francisco Naval Shipyard and began preparations for a return to Yankee Station, departing for WestPac on 16 June 1967.

At the time of the 1966 fire, ORISKANY carried Carrier Air Wing 16 and its assigned squadrons:

• Fighter Squadron 111 (F-8E)
• Fighter Squadron 162 (F-8E)
• Attack Squadron 163 (A-4E)
• Attack Squadron 164 (A-4E)
• Attack Squadron 152 (A-1H)
• Heavy Attack Squadron 4 Det G (A-3B)
• Airborne Early Warning Squadron 11 Det G (E-1B)
• Photo Squadron 63 Det G (RF-8G)
• Helicopter Support Squadron 1 Det G (UH-2)
• VAP-61 Det (RA-3B)

The fire started when a magnesium flare ignited in a ready ammo locker near frame 44 in the forward section of the ship. Shipboard fires are not uncommon, and ORISKANY’s crew responded promptly and properly to this one. However, the primary firefighting tool available in the magazine area was an inexhaustible supply of salt water – but water alone cannot extinguish magnesium fires. The heat of the flare ignited other ordnance, including 5″ ZUNI rocket warheads.

Heavy, incapacitating smoke was rapidly drawn into the ship’s ventilation system, while fireballs from exploding ordnance ignited secondary fires among fully fueled aircraft in Hangar Bay 1. The combination of toxic smoke and scattered secondary fires blocked passageways and caused numerous casualties. The Air Wing’s officers were particularly vulnerable, since many of them occupied quarters in the immediate vicinity of the fires and were unable to escape to the hangar bays or flight deck.

For some, the only escape route was downward into the lowest decks of the ship – but they found that the unending stream of salt water being sprayed above them drained downwards with them. In one instance, a ship’s company officer who was a qualified diver donned scuba gear and swam down a vertical trunk to rescue a seaman trapped in a 7th-deck pump room. By the time the fires were controlled and extinguished, dozens of ORISKANY’s Air Wing and crew were dead and hundreds more injured.

The body of Lieutenant Commander Omar R. Ford, USN, one of 44 officers and men who lost their lives in the 26 October fire, is committed to the deep from Oriskany’s flight deck during memorial services at sea in the Western Pacific, 06 November, en route to San Diego, California.

The ORISKANY was named after the Revolutionary War battle of Oriskany, New York. Today, the village of Oriskany has on permanent display the starboard bow (right front) anchor from USS ORISKANY. The anchor is located in Trinkaus Park. Each of the forty-four posts that surround the anchor bears the name of one of the crewmen who died off the shores of Vietnam.

Additional stories, videos, and personal accounts can be found at www.ussoriskany.us