MERRICK-WALTER

KILLED  IN  FIRE  ABOARD  USS  ORISKANY  - 10/26/1966

October 26, 1966, was a catastrophic day aboard the carrier USS Oriskany.  At 7:28 hours, as the ship prepared for flight operations in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam and was stowing ordinance from night operations, a crewman accidentally activated a magnesium flare, and for reasons known only to him, he threw the burning flare into a magazine locker and dogged the door shut.  The locker contained rocket warheads and the flare, burning at 3000 degrees, quickly caused warheads to explode.  General quarters quickly sounded and firefighting teams attempted to cool the area near the burning locker and were unable to fight the fire directly. 

After about ten minutes the pressure inside the locker blew out the locker door causing the fire to quickly spread, ignite a helicopter located nearby, and as the fire intensified, the entire forward portion of the carrier was affected.  Fire, heat and smoke was drawn forward into berthing quarters and working offices.  As flames spread it became necessary to evacuate officers’ country, staterooms occupied largely by pilots.  Within minutes several men in officer’s country were killed when a fireball shot down the passageway.  Others were suffocated.

Before the fires were completely under control, 44 crewmembers had died and 156 had been injured.  Beside the material damage to the ship, two helicopters and an aircraft were destroyed, and three aircraft were damaged.  Estimated cost of the material damage was eleven million dollars.

Unfortunately, Commander Walter Forrest Merrick was one of the casualties.  Readily available historical records are scarce concerning him and specific details of his death are not available.  It can be assumed he was one of the victims who was overcome in his working or birthing space and was unable to escape the scene.  His body was recovered and is buried at Glen Abbey Memorial Park in Bonita, California, where his memorial marker carries the inscription:  CDR – US NAVY – WORLD WAR II - VICTNAM.

               

                        USS ORISKANY  BURNING

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)