USS FORRESTAL AIRCRAFT CARRIER FIRE " TRIAL BY FIRE " MOVIE 1967 (Print 2) 54884

A friend and coworker in the Navy with me, was blown off the flight deck when that happened. The stories he had to tell were so heartbreaking.

I was posted at Tripler Army Medical Center on Oahu, Hawaii when this occurred and several of the wounded (burned) sailors were brought there to be stabilized before being forwarded to treatment centers in CONUS. I was acting XO of the company when one of the ward medics was escorted into my office by a sergeant. He had been found wandering outside the hospital out of uniform and was disrespectful when the sergeant called him on it. Before I could do anything, I received a call from the senior NCO on the ward where the medic worked. He had dismissed the medic from his duties for harassing the burn patients. He would wake them by shouting "FIRE!" and grabbing the wounded parts of their bodies. I watched the medic as I listened to the complaint on the phone. He was sneering (likely knowing what I was listening to). I braced him against the wall when the call ended and warned him not to move until I could summon the CO. The medic was disrespectful with both the CO and myself because the OIC of the Neuro-psychiatric ward had prevented anyone from being courts martialed preferring to treat offenders as patients. I called the ward sergeant in the NP ward and asked him to call me when the OIC left for the day. When he did, I had a sergeant run the medic there for an evaluation by a cooperative captain on duty. We got a release from him and I arranged for him to be transferred to the stockade at Schofield Barracks. I then had the duty NCO go to the armory and draw a .45 with holster and ammunition. As the medic watched I loaded it and chambered a round and then handed it to the sergeant with instructions to "Shoot the bastard if he so much as blinks and I'll cover for you." We signed out an ambulance to provide transportation and sent them on their way. The attitude among the troops assigned to the hospital went through a drastic change in the days that followed...

TSgt Joe C. PO3 Steven Sherrill CW3 Kevin Storm SSG (Join to see) SGM Steve Wettstein SMSgt Thor Merich MSG (Join to see) PO1 John Johnson LTC Greg Henning PVT Mark Zehner MSG Tom Earley Alan K. SPC Mark Huddleston PO1 H Gene Lawrence SGT Elizabeth Scheck Sgt Deborah Cornatzer SSgt Boyd Herrst SPC Diana D.