 McCain was almost killed on board Forrestal on July 29 , 1967 . While the air wing was preparing to launch attacks , a Zuni rocket from an F @-@ 4 Phantom accidentally fired across the carrier 's deck . The rocket struck either McCain 's A @-@ 4E Skyhawk or one near it . The impact ruptured the Skyhawk 's fuel tank , which ignited the fuel and knocked two bombs loose . McCain later said , " I thought my aircraft exploded . Flames were everywhere . " McCain escaped from his jet by climbing out of the cockpit , working himself to the nose of the jet , and jumping off its refueling probe onto the burning deck . His flight suit caught on fire as he rolled through the flames , but he was able to put it out . He went to help another pilot trying to escape the fire when the first bomb exploded ; McCain was thrown backwards ten feet ( three meters ) and suffered minor wounds when struck in the legs and chest by fragments . McCain helped crewmen throw unexploded bombs overboard off the hangar deck elevator , then went to Forrestal 's ready room and with other pilots watched the ensuing fire and the fire @-@ fighting efforts on the room 's closed @-@ circuit television . The fire killed 134 sailors , injured scores of others , destroyed at least 20 aircraft , and took 24 hours to control . In Saigon a day after the conflagration , McCain praised the heroism of enlisted men who gave their lives trying to save the pilots on deck , and told New York Times reporter R. W. Apple , Jr . , " It 's a difficult thing to say . But now that I 've seen what the bombs and the napalm did to the people on our ship , I 'm not so sure that I want to drop any more of that stuff on North Vietnam . " But such a change of course was unlikely ; as McCain added , " I always wanted to be in the Navy . I was born into it and I never really considered another profession . But I always had trouble with the regimentation . " 
