At 10:18 PM on July 17, 1944, while two Liberty ships were being loaded with ordnance in Suisun Bay by crews of mostly black sailors a boom or winch failed and dropped some ordnance.
This was immediately followed by an initial smaller explosion and resulting fire.
Several seconds following the first explosion a massive 3-mile diameter fireball rose from the dock crushing and consuming everything within its area including both Liberty ships and a US Coast Guard fire barge which was picked up 600 feet into the air and dumped in the bay immediately sinking and wiping out its crew. All 320 personnel on the docks and ships were immediately killed with no survivors while 390 others nearby were injured, many of them seriously burned. Bodies and body parts were scattered all over the immediate vicinity.
The conditions in which the black sailors were working both at the time of the disaster as well as subsequently led to the infamous Port Chicago Mutiny a few weeks later.
Kimmer
On Thu, Dec 9, 2010 at 9:03 PM, newnethboy <kef413@gmail.com> wrote:
It's not for no reason that "SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY" is such a big push in
places like that. Even with all the push, things still happen. And when they
do, they quickly get big.
Scott Bixler 125 V125Josepho Team (Lifeguard) Associate Adviser(310)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Bixler" <karrie_scott@hotmail.com>
To: "California Disasters" <californiadisasters@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 8:14 PM
Subject: RE: [californiadisasters] Bomb Guy
Working on the flight deck of the USS Kitty Hawk took some of the same
qualities and who would ever want to work 20+ hrs. on the world's smallest
airport in the middle of the ocean.? I had my share of close calls and so
have my friends. The 3" thick arresting cable snapped when the 113 bird from
VFA-102 came in for a landing at 2200 hrs. for carrier quals. That accident
resulted in a Capt's. Mass of the LT. in charge and it went all the way down
to the E-1.
Another accident that happened on the USS Forrestal was an ordinance
accident, where a missile fired on accident from a jet and it struck another
jet. Then a series of unfortunate events occurred that resulted in the
complete loss of the ship and severe casualties among the rescuers and crew.
http://www.navysite.de/cvn/cv59.htm
337-9904 Mom's (310) 821-1012 Dad's
(310) 357-6051 Cell
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