USS Forrestal reunion brings together all who served

Merv Rowland was the chief engineer aboard the 80,000-ton USS Forrestal when a portion of the aircraft carrier went up in flames off the coast of Vietnam in 1967.

It was his job to direct efforts to put out the fire that started after a rocket misfired, hit the wing of one of the planes, spilled fuel and knocked loose a bomb that which landed on the flight deck.

All the other planes in line on the deck, including one where U.S. Sen. and presidential candidate John McCain sat in the cockpit, were loaded with fuel and ammunition, Rowland said. After the first explosion, "there was exposed ammunition all over the ship," he said, and the fire quickly spread.

When the fire finally was extinguished, 134 of the 5,000 men on board had lost their lives, he said. But the Forrestal was saved.

Rowland, 90, is one of 350 members of the USS Forrestal Association attending an annual reunion, which runs through Sunday at the Sheraton North Charleston.

Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier.