LCDR Gerry Lyle Stark, Seattle, WA on www.VirtualWall.org The Virtual Wall® Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall

USS FORRESTAL arrived on Yankee Station in the Gulf of Tonkin on 25 July 1967 and immediately began combat operations. The first four days were routine; the fifth day, 29 July, was not.

At 10:52 AM a 5-inch Zuni rocket accidentally fired across the crowded flight deck, impacting an armed A-4 Skyhawk. The resulting explosions and fires raged for 13 hours and more, killing 135 crewmen with hundreds more injured.

More information with a list of the dead are on The Virtual Wall's USS FORRESTAL Memorial.

The 18 crewman who perished on the USS Forrestal and buried in Arlington National Cemetery are:

PO2 Marvin Jarrell Adkins Mallory, West Virginia	LT Dennis Michael Barton Des Moines, Iowa	AIRMAN Robert John Davies Rhinelander, Wisconsin

PO2 Edward Robert Dorsey Wallingford, Connecticut	PO1 Walter Tasman Eads Falls Church, Virginia	PO1 John Junior Fiedler Janesville, Wisconsin

PO3 Russell Larry Fike Orlando, Florida	Airman Johnnie Lee Frazier Plainview, Texas	Airman Ralph Edward Manning East Point, Georgia

PO3 Leroy Moser Pollock, South Dakota	CPO Richard Lee Owens Fresno, California	PO2 Ernest Elijah Polston Lancaster, South Carolina

PO3 John Mark Pruner New York, New York	PO2 Dale Ray Ross Wentzville, Missouri	PO2 John Francis Snow Rouses Point, New York

Seaman Nelson Everett Spitler Upper Sandusky, Ohio	LCDR Gerry Lyle Stark Seattle, Washington	Airman Harold David Watkins Cleveland, Ohio

- - The Virtual Wall, June 24, 2014