BOOK REVIEW: Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy
By Chas Henry / Potomac Books
Reviewed by: Bill Harlow
The Reviewer — Bill Harlow served as chief spokesman for the CIA from 1997 to 2004 and was Assistant White House Press Secretary for National Security from 1988 to 1992. A retired Navy captain, Harlow is the co-author of four New York Times bestsellers on intelligence and is the author of Circle William: A Novel.
REVIEW — In October 1979, an enormous storm, Typhoon Tip, roared across the Pacific. To this day, it remains the most intense tropical cyclone on record. That perfectly awful storm helped set in motion a series of events that led to one of the worst peacetime disasters in U.S. Marine Corps history.
But the deaths and injuries that followed at a Marine Corps training facility at the foot of Japan’s Mount Fuji, were not caused by weather alone. They were also the result of the breaching of a huge fuel storage bladder, containing more than 5,500 gallons of gasoline, perilously positioned on a slope above Camp Fuji. The fuel, floating on stormwater, created a vapor that exploded creating a hell on earth. Thirteen Marines ultimately died of their burns. At least 73 people, mostly Marines but also three Japanese civilians and one U.S. Navy Sailor, were injured, many grievously.
The odds are that unless you were directly connected, you have never heard of the Camp Fuji fire. Even if you are old enough to remember 1979, it may never crossed your radar. And that’s where Chas Henry comes in. A Marine from 1976 to 1996, rising in rank from private to captain, Henry had a second career after hanging up his uniform as a journalist working for a variety of organizations including CBS Radio and Westwood One. As a young, enlisted Marine, he trained at Camp Fuji. Years later he happened to post a photo of himself on social media at camp and mentioned that the shot was taken a year before “the big fire.” He was stunned that so many people responded: What fire?
That launched a four-year, two continent investigation that resulted in the recent publication of “Fuji Fire: Sifting Ashes of a Forgotten U.S. Marine Corps Tragedy.”
Demonstrating the doggedness and attention to detail for which Marines are known, Henry does a deep dive into the events leading up to, during and after the horrific event. He spoke to more than 130 people with intimate knowledge of what transpired.
He examines not only the fire itself and its aftermath, but also the lead-up, including the efforts of the U.S. Air Force and other military storm chasers who flew into the eye of the growing monster typhoon and tried to predict its course.
But the emotional heart of the story is the description of the austere life at the rugged/ramshackle Camp Fuji in October 1979 and the events that followed. For reasons that defy understanding, officials had elected to install fuel storage bladders uphill from the Quonset hut living quarters for some 1,300 personnel, counting on large earth berms to protect those living below the rubberized pillow-like containers built by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, the folks who also build parade balloons and blimps. And the berms might have been more than sufficient had there been a simple leak.
But Tip was no normal storm. In one day, more than 10 inches of rain drenched Camp Fuji. A fuel bladder broke loose, ripped when it ran into some pumps, and spilled the equivalent of 100 55-gallon drums of gas downhill on top of flood waters. It is likely that kerosine heaters in one of the huts lit off the mixture, launching the nightmare.
Henry reconstructs the resulting chaos, the randomness of how some Marines were engulfed while others escaped. Military personnel heroically tried to treat and save their buddies –in unimaginably difficult circumstances. One Marine recalled surviving by remembering a public service announcement he had recently seen on Armed Forces Television featuring actor Dick Van Dyke. The actor recommended crawling on the floor in a house fire because that offered the best chance of finding breathable air.
The story of Fuji Fire did not end when the flames went out, however. More chaos ensued as victims were transported with great difficulty to a variety of small Japanese hospitals nearby and the U.S. military scrambled to find helicopters and crews capable of performing medical evacuation.
Aircrews from all the branches performed heroically. Eventually 38 Marines were airlifted back to the United States aboard two Air Force C-141 Starlifters bound for urgent care at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
Henry spares no detail in describing the sometimes-agonizing treatment that the survivors endured and the challenges faced by them and their families.
Why did such a major catastrophe so quickly fade from public memory, if it ever registered there? One factor was that just a few weeks after the fire, the U.S. embassy in Iran was seized and the hostage crisis dominated most of the nation’s headlines for more than a year. Another mystery is why the post-fire investigations were so perfunctory and shallow. One investigation, completed just 30 days after the fire, declared that “No person or persons is responsible for the fire that occurred at Camp Fuji on 19 October 1979; it was an act of God.” It is questionable whether, if a similar incident occurred today, investigators would be so forgiving or media coverage so light.
Despite the heartbreak, Fuji Fire is ultimately a story of resilience. The pain and suffering described in the book is offset by many examples of people rising above their challenges. Henry highlights acts of selflessness — Marines looking after fellow Marines, and members of the public stepping up to help those in need.
Fuji Fire is a remarkable piece of research. Henry seems to go out of his way to try to mention by name every Marine, Sailor, civilian or other service member who played even a tangential role in the saga. He clearly burrowed into the data and tells readers not only the life stories of some of the main victims – but little details like the sales volume for the Navy Exchange branch store at Camp Fuji at the time.
Putting things in perspective, the then-Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Robert H. Barrow, a combat veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam said that he had witnesses a lot of ugly things in those wars – but none compared to what he saw when he met with the Fuji fire burn victims. To his credit, Barrow showed great concern for the injured and ordered all Marine generals transiting the U.S. to visit the Brooke Army Medical Center as well. In one memorable scene in the book, Barrow visited the burn ward and two Marines on ventilators climbed out of bed to stand at attention on seeing their Commandant.
Fuji Fire is a deeply reported, deeply felt account of a tragedy that should never be forgotten.
Semper fi.
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