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Fire aboard the USS Enterprise

January 14, 1969

1969-01-14_EnterpriseFire_NationalMuseumNavalAviation_1996.4
1969-01-14_EnterpriseFire_NationalMuseumNavalAviation_1996.4
Fire on the USS Enterprise, January 14, 1969. (National Naval Aviation Museum)

While steaming off of Hawaii before deploying to Vietnam, the nuclear-powered carrier USS Enterprise suffers a costly fire when a rocket ignites on the flight deck and triggers explosions in nearby aircraft. Though the flames are brought under control, 27 crewmen are killed, 344 are injured, and 15 aircraft are destroyed.1

“Enterprise Remembers 1969 Fire,” January 17, 2012, http://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=64783 (link is external) (accessed 4/15/14) states that the ship was off the coast of Vietnam at the time (for numbers, see paragraph 12). James E. Wise, Jr. and Scott Baron, Dangerous Games: Faces, Incidents, and Casualties of the Cold War (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010), entry for 1969 says it was off Hawaii.