Fire, Fire, Fire...

Small Team Bacsi said:
This thread makes me think of one of my dads sea stories. Not a fire as such an explosion on a navy ship.

On Nov 10 1944 at 8:55 am Dad was running across the beach to get his PBY out of the water because of an air raid.

at that exact moment he was knocked to the ground as the USS Mount Hood, out in the harbor, exploded and ceased to exist.

All hands killed. No bodies of the ships crew recovered. They could barely find any pieces of the ship.

I think it was 17 sailors who had left the Mount Hood a few minutes before had just arrived on the beach at that same time.

At least one was on the beach to face charges. The rest were getting the ships mail or doing other ships business

It pays to be lucky
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I had never heard of this before. That's an insane story @Small Team Bacsi

en.m.wikipedia.org

USS Mount Hood (AE-11) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
CatDog99 said:
I had never heard of this before. That's an insane story @Small Team Bacsi

en.m.wikipedia.org

USS Mount Hood (AE-11) - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
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Thanks for posting that link.

I had not realized from previous reading that the 18 men on the beach , that had just left the ship, had the exact same experience my dad had——being knocked off their feet by the concussion.

Dad told me he had no idea what had just happened and as soon as his head cleared he checked himself for wounds.

He thought it must have been an enemy bomb that knocked him down

And the air raid dad was worried about had nothing to do with the Mount Hood exploding. That air raid never got to his side of the island.
 
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Back when I was a Gunnery and Missile Officer, one of our pubs was
NAVORD OP 1014 Ordnance Safety Precautions, Their Origin And Necessity
which was basically a Pigpen like (Peanuts Ref) recital and description of the bad things that happen
with explosive ordnance and it was very sobering reading.

There were lots of lessons learned just by reading it.
  • When handling flares, whatever you do, don't drop or throw them toward other flares if there is a mishap or malfunction.
  • "Duds" may just be working ammunition that is a bit delayed.
  • Handling and storage procedures are there for a reason and even if they don't seem to make sense, don't shortcut them.
are just a start from memory four decades after reading it.
 
A question about the Mount Hood follow up investigation.

in the link provided above there is a summary at the end of some of the many problems that had been occurring on the ship prior to the explosion.

Would the 18 survivors be the only source of this information or would Navy have had info from some other sources they could have been used to do this report?

You would hope that the problems were not well known outside the ship prior to the explosion.
 
Here is a list of US Navy ordnance mishaps aboard ship. It would be interesting to see if anyone online has done a deep dive on the Mt Hood disaster and gathered all the relevant reports. I poked around a little online and many of the links are broken for the Mt Hood reports. Doesn't mean they aren't available, likely just not curated lately.
www.history.navy.mil

H-029-5 Ordnance Accidents

H-Gram 029, Attachment 5 Samuel J. Cox, Director NHHC April 2019
www.history.navy.mil www.history.navy.mil
 
Sounds like almost everything that could go wrong did. What stood out to me was that 75% of the fire stations were inoperable. I know nothing about ships, but I know that fire is one of the biggest hazards. Seems like common sense that 100% of the fire stations should be fully operational at ALL times. And an adequate fire watch should be posted at ALL times. Yeah a lot of other things happened too, but those top two things could have made a difference.

Sounds like some careers are done. Does the commanding officer have any excuse for 75% of fire stations being inoperable?
 
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NJROTC-CC said:
Sounds like almost everything that could go wrong did. What stood out to me was that 75% of the fire stations were inoperable. I know nothing about ships, but I know that fire is one of the biggest hazards. Seems like common sense that 100% of the fire stations should be fully operational at ALL times. And an adequate fire watch should be posted at ALL times. Yeah a lot of other things happened too, but those top two things could have made a difference.

Sounds like some careers are done. Does the commanding officer have any excuse for 75% of fire stations being inoperable?
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My understanding from previous readings is that these fire fighting stations had to be taken offline as part of the overhaul being done to the ship.
 
ProudDad17 said:
My understanding from previous readings is that these fire fighting stations had to be taken offline as part of the overhaul being done to the ship.
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Hindsight is always 20-20, And it’s easy to say now, but there could’ve been an alternate plan to taking down 75% of the fire fighting stations.
 
Take a moment to read about the Port Chicago (Concord, California) explosion in 1944. That will help solidify the danger of loading ammunition aboard Naval ships.

An ammunition ship explodes in the Port Chicago disaster

An ammunition ship explodes while being loaded in Port Chicago, California, killing 320 people on July 17, 1944. The United States’ World War II military
www.history.com www.history.com
www.army.mil

Port Chicago - The most solemn memorial you'll never visit

During World War II, where did the biggest loss of life on U.S. soil take place? Most people immediately think of the attack on Pearl Harbor and answer Hawaii. But that is incorrect ...
www.army.mil www.army.mil

I was stationed with the Marine Guard unit at NWS Concord and this incident was a big part of the local lore and training procedures.
 
I think if this were in a civilian court, he would not be convicted. There is reasonable doubt.
 
Good result. From what I read there was just not enough evidence for a conviction. It appears that he got a fair trial.
 
And no matter who actually started this fire i still believe the USN should not be enlisting these kids on SEAL contracts and then sending those who flunk to a ship to be on the deck crew.

You sign up for spec ops , you are a hard charger, you flunk out or get hurt——as most do— the navy should either be training you for a real job or sending you home.

Maybe hospital corps school and then the FMF.

otherwise just give them a discharge and a bus ticket home,
 
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