Fort Worth-area veteran ‘prayed a powerful prayer’ amid fire on USS Kitty Hawk

As the great Marty Robbins once sang, some memories just won’t die.

Hal Cleveland, 72, of Burleson, has such memories, having served on the historic naval aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk.

The ship was legendary for several reasons: being one of the longest ever commissioned (1961-2009), having the largest shipboard race riot in naval history in October 1972 — and a devastating fire onboard that claimed the lives of six seamen on Dec. 11, 1973.

Cleveland remembers in detail how close he came to being No. 7. And not a day goes by that he doesn’t wish he could have saved his shipmates.

“Not a Dec. 11 passes without me thinking of the occurrences that happened that day. I can’t think of a time that I reached out and asked God’s help in prayer as hard as I did then,” he recalled. “I was more scared that night than I can remember at any other time in my life.”

USS Kitty Hawk fire

Around 5 p.m. Philippines time a fuel fire in the main machinery room broke out.

Cleveland, who enlisted in May of 1972, was in training as a crash and salvage rescue fireman and was assigned to work on the flight deck. He was approaching the end of his day shift.

“We heard a huge poof, or chugging sound, coming out of the smoke stacks, followed by sparks and ashes floating to the flight deck on the rear quarter covering aircraft that were tied down,” Cleveland recalled.

Cleveland immediately donned his asbestos proximity suit — called a hot suit.

A chief petty officer from R-Division (people responsible for fighting the fire in the engine room) told Cleveland to go below and try to rescue some sailors trapped in the machinery room.

“As we entered the ladder well when leaving the flight deck on the port side of the ship it hit me what I was about to do,” Cleveland said.

On each level of decks thick humidity and the smoke filled the air. There was no electricity and the only lights were battle lanterns and flashlights.

“We finally reached the escape scuttle that was on the starboard side of the ship that led to the number one main machinery room,” he said.

One of the R-Division fire party members was holding an oxygen breathing apparatus and helped him put it on — a predecessor to the full-face mask and tank seen in TV shows today, such as “9-1-1.”

Cleveland guessed that the hot suit and oxygen breathing apparatus weighted 40 to 45 pounds.

“The rubber firefighting boots were clumsy and the circumference of the escape hatch made it difficult for me to pass through it to the point I had to disconnect and lift the OBA above my head while trying to pass between the second deck to the third deck through that escape hatch.”

Cleveland said he referred to his upbringing in his faith as he climbed alone through what he described as the gates of hell.

“I prayed a powerful prayer that night as I made my way down the ladder and into the dark abyss of smoke, and heat. The further I went the more unbearable it became,” he said.

Fate sealed on Kitty Hawk

Despite the heroics to save them, 10 minutes after the general alarm sounded, all the hatches were closed, sealing the death of six engine men who were still fighting the fire. Cleveland is haunted still, though he likely would have joined them had he gone on.

“It was later that I found out had I gone any further, I could have been seared in two by an over 800-degree, super heated steam line,” Cleveland said. “By this time, I figured that there would be no one left down there alive, although I kept praying to get someone out to safety.

“It took every ounce of strength I could muster to climb that ladder back to where I started.”

After the machinery spaces cooled. A team was able to recover the bodies of the six sailors who didn’t make it out.

Years later Cleveland became friends with Gordon Shaw who, while he didn’t serve on the Kitty Hawk at the same time as Cleveland, came along shortly after. Shaw was an officer of R Division.

“Hal and I had chatted often about that fire,” Shaw said. “One who died was R Division. Five were Propulsion Division. I did not know them, but had the fire not killed them I would have known all of them, and stood engineering watch with many of them.”

Shaw said he has been able to reconnect with a dozen or so R Division workers through Facebook groups. They all remember the fire vividly.

“I choke up sometimes reading their messages or emails to me,” he said. “I feel like I wish I could have helped them somehow back then.”

He also learned how affected Cleveland had been that night and knew he had to meet him.

“He carries that night, and more important those six shipmates with him always,” Shaw said. “I make it a point to carry those six shipmates with me too.”

Practically the whole time Cleveland was on the USS Kitty Hawk, the Paris Peace Accords were in session, with the war officially ending in May of 1975.

He went on to serve many more years, including in the Gulf War. During his career, from which he retired on June 1, 2002, he was promoted to Petty Officer First Class.

But none of his career was ever as memorable as that night on the Kitty Hawk.

“It has been a very long time since I have gone into detail about that night,” Cleveland said, adding, “Lest we forget: Fireman Recruit Michael Deverich, Fireman Recruit Linn Schambers, Fireman Recruit Kevin Johnson, Fireman Apprentice Samuel Cardenas, Fireman Apprentice Alan Champine and Firemen Apprentice Joseph Tulipina.”

This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 2:10 PM.