Driving easily through a moderate sea, the vast U.S.S. John F. Kennedy catapulted jet aircraft into the night about 70 miles east of Sicily. One after another, the F-14 fighters braced on the catapults, revved their engines to a screech, then were flung off the bow of the 87,000-ton carrier. The red glow of their afterburners traced their progress as they climbed into the blackness.
When all the flight was safely aloft, the 1,047-ft. Kennedy got ready to position herself for the landing operation — "to seek the wind," in the Navy's phrase. All was well. There was nothing difficult about the maneuver; it had been performed thousands of times by units of the U.S. Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean. The job of the six much smaller ships shepherding the Kennedy was to change position to accomodate the movements of the attack carrier. The Kennedy radioed her planned change of course to the U.S.S. Belknap, a 7,930-ton guided-missile cruiser that was some 3,000 yards off the carrier's port bow. The Belknap began a starboard turn.
At 10 p.m. taps sounded over the loudspeaker system aboard the Kennedy, and the chaplain went on the ship's closed-circuit TV network to give the evening benediction. The atmosphere was equally relaxed aboard the Belknap.
Then in an instant, everything changed. Over the Belknap's loudspeaker crackled a call given only if the ship is in peril or coming under attack: "Captain to the bridge!" Gangways aboard the Belknap filled with jostling men racing to their stations. Fifteen long seconds passed while the men tensed against the unknown. Then a heavy shock passed through the cruiser, followed by a long, rumbling shudder that felt like an earthquake. Up above, the Kennedy's angled landing deck was smashing through the superstructure of the Belknap like a battering ram. The impact crushed the ship's funnels, sending clouds of acrid smoke billowing through the cruiser. Jet fuel from the Kennedy sluiced over the Belknap's mangled superstructure. With a roar, fire broke out on both ships.
Aboard the Belknap, an explosion blew Machinist's Mate Michael F. Cartolano Jr., 20, through a hatch into a bulkhead. He staggered on deck and looked up in horror. "The Kennedy was sitting right on top of us with her deck on fire," he recalls. "There it was — a nightmare!"
Exploding Shells. On a nearby destroyer, the U.S.S. Claude V. Ricketts, the loudspeaker ordered: "Away the rescue and assistance team!" As the Ricketts prepared for action, her stunned sailors witnessed an awesome sight. "You know that movie, Towering Inferno?" Yeoman Roshon King, 20, later asked. "That's what the Belknap looked like."
As the Ricketts edged in close to play hoses on the Belknap, the destroyer suddenly found herself under fire. Three-inch shells were exploding in an ammunition locker on the Belknap, sending shrapnel whining across both decks. Twice the Ricketts had to back off before she finally was able to tie up to the Belknap. The Ricketts' crew had axes handy to cut the lines if the blazing cruiser seemed on the point of blowing up.