Jerry Rodgers was from Snyder, Texas an oilfield and agriculture town in West Texas. He joined the Navy from high school and was on the USS FORRESTAL, the Nation's first supercarrier. On July 29, 1967, the carrier was on station in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of North Vietnam, when a Zuni rocket was accidentally fired and struck a parked A-4 Skyhawk that was piloted by Lt. John McCain, now Senator McCain and former POW. This set off a chain reaction. AMS3 Rodgers was killed in the incident. He is remembered by his hometown, and by the Permian Basin Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Midland, Texas.
At 10:52 AM a 5-inch Zuni rocket accidentally fired across the crowded flight deck, impacting an armed A-4 Skyhawk. The resulting explosions and fires raged for 13 hours and more, killing 135 crewmen with hundreds more injured.
Some of Fighter Squadron 11's berthing spaces were located immediately below the area of the flight deck first involved, and many off-duty men from VF-11 died in these compartments. VF-11 lost a total of 48 men.
More information and a list of the dead are on The Virtual Wall's
USS FORRESTAL Memorial
