The Forrestal Curse

From a rational point of view, the two tragedies that will be discussed here obviously have nothing to do with each other: that of James Forrestal, who went to his death out of a window, and that of the aircraft carrier that bears his name, the greatest disaster of the US Navy during the Vietnam War.

Rationally, no; metaphysically, who knows? Coincidences are the language of surrealities, aren’t they?

1892–1949 (59 years old)

I – The strange “suicide” of James Forestal, who opposed the creation of the State of Israel

James Forrestal was a considerable military and political personality. He served as secretary of the Navy from May 1944 to September 1947, and then became the first to hold the brand new position of Secretary of Defense, from September 1947 to March 1949.

He was a strong advocate of naval battles fought by aircraft carriers, opposing the USAF’s preference for air operations from land bases.

He was personally opposed to the unification of the War, Navy and Aviation departments into the newly formed Ministry of Defence, and yet he was the first person appointed to head it.

He was a staunch anti-communist who oversaw the development of American forces to confront the USSR at the beginning of the Cold War. In this, he was fully in agreement with the Truman geopolitical doctrine presented on March 12, 1947 to Congress by the President, which advocated that the United States should support democratic regimes against authoritarian regimes; this speech marked the beginning of the Cold War.

On the other hand, he opposed in vain, as did the State Department, the recognition of Israelby the United States. For this reason, he was dismissed in March 1949 by Truman, whose sympathies are well-known, not only in favor of Israel in foreign policy, but also of the influence of the Jewish community in the United States (e.g., the role of Jewish intellectuals in the reform of immigration laws in the United States, with, in 1952, the establishment of the President’s Council on Immigration and Naturalization, chaired by the Jew Emmanuel Celler).

As a bonus, this handsome, successful man is supposed to have gone through a depressive episode that warranted a stay at Bethesda Military Hospital. On the morning of May 22, he was found dead on a rooftop sixteen floors below his room: suicide or episode in Ben-Gurion’s underground war against American anti-Zionists/anti-Semites?

However, there are legitimate reasons to question the suicide theory:

New evidence in the report indicates that Forrestal was assassinated. Pulitzer prize-winning American history professor, Martin Sherwin told us, “I have always thought Forrestal committed suicide, but this is not because I investigated the manner of his death. You are doing that and I look forward to reading the results.” …

The Willcutts Report offers new evidence of a struggle in Forrestal’s room. Broken glass was found on his bed and photographed on the floor of his room. This could explain why the sash from his dressing gown was knotted around his neck.

Initial news reports contained speculation that Forrestal used the sash in an attempt to hang himself out of the16th-floor window from which he fell. None of them even hinted at the much more plausible notion that the sash had been wrapped around his neck to subdue him.

Be that as it may, a year after his death, the Korean War validated his theories about the essential role of aircraft carriers in future wars. The aircraft carrier USS Forrestal, commissioned in 1955, was named in his honor.

II – The Launch of the USS Forrestal, the Titanic of Aircraft Carriers

The USS Forrestal is the heaviest combat ship built since the construction of the Japanese aircraft carrier Shinano. It gives its name to the Forrestal class which includes the Saratoga, the Ranger, and the Independence.

It is, of course, named after former Secretary of Defense James Forrestal, including his nickname, “First In Defense,” affectionately abbreviated to “F.I.D.”, in reference to the fact that he was the first to hold this new position. This is why “First In Defense” appears on its insignia and patches.

Built with lessons learned from the Korean War in mind, it was launched on December 11, 1954, at the Newport News shipyard in Virginia, in the presence of Josephine Forrestal, the widow of James Forrestal, and was commissioned on October 1, 1955.

It was the first American aircraft carrier to be built from the ground up with a sloping deck, steam catapults, and illuminated landing aids.

It has 19 decks and more than 2,000 compartments.

A transport aircraft like the C-130 is capable of landing and taking off there, allowing logistical support of the aircraft carrier by air.

But more ironically, the Forrestal is also nicknamed “USS Zippo”, “Forest Fire” or even “Firestal”, notably because of the 1967 tragedy that we see now.

III – July 29, 1967, a flight deck accident that turned into a disaster

The USS Forrestal arrived in the area of operations named Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam on 24 July 1967 for its first, and what would be its last, combat operation.

On July 29, as part of Operation Rolling Thunder at 10:45, the aircraft carrier was taking the air route to allow the catapulting of the second wave of attacks of the day after that of 7:00 which has already returned; the preparation is in full swing.

At 10:50 a.m., a Zuni air-to-ground rocket, strapped to the underside of a McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II aircraft, ignited following a power surge that accidentally spread to the rocket when it switched to the aircraft’s internal power supply after starting its engine.

The rocket, slightly deflected by the impact with a sailor, hit the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk 405 piloted by Lieutenant Fred D. White, which was awaiting launch; it tore through the left external tank without exploding. The JP-5 fuel spilled onto the flight deck and ignited.

At 10:54, 94 seconds after the fire began, the first bomb exploded. The flight deck was blown apart by the chain of explosions from the fighter jets loaded with fuel and weapons. A total of twelve bombs, weighing 225 and 1,000 kg, detonated on the armored flight deck. The latter was breached and the fire spread to the lower floors, causing numerous deaths. The first explosion killed the group of firefighters, the only ones with firefighting training. Surrounded by flames, Lieutenant John McCain, future presidential candidate of the United States, managed to escape by jumping from the nose of his Douglas A-4 Skyhawk 416.

At 10:59, the ship was in Zebra condition, with all watertight bulkheads and doors closed and the ammunition bunkers ready for flooding. The aircraft hangar below the deck was sprayed with sprinklers. The most damaged aircraft closest to the fire were pushed overboard by hand or forklift.

The death toll from this disaster was 134 (including 90 in the dormitories located under the flight deck), 161 injured, 21 aircraft from Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17) destroyed (seven F-4 Phantom IIs; eleven A-4E Skyhawks; three RA-5 Vigilantes; and 43 damaged), and 72 million dollars in repairs for seven months of work.

And so Josephine Forrestal, the fatal beauty, wife of James Forrestal and sponsor of the aircraft carrier, found herself twice widowed.

Josephine Forrestal 1899–1976