Posted on 10/01/2013 11:26:31 AM PDT by 11th_VA
In 1972, the United States was embroiled in an unpopular war in Vietnam, and the USS Kitty Hawk was headed to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin. Its five thousand men, cooped up for the longest at-sea tour of the war, rioted--or, as Troubled Water suggests, mutinied.
Disturbingly, the lines were drawn racially, black against white. By the time order was restored, careers were in tatters. Although the incident became a turning point for race relations in the Navy, this story remained buried within U.S. Navy archives for decades.
With action pulled straight from a high seas thriller, Gregory A. Freeman uses eyewitness accounts and a careful and unprecedented examination of the navy's records to refute the official story of the incident, make a convincing case for the U.S. navy's first mutiny, and shed new light on this seminal event in American history.
(Excerpt) Read more at amazon.com ...
Any written reports on “Summary Justice”
I went into the submarine service. Friend of mine ended up on the Hawk when we were in the same port on time I went over to say hello and found he was “gone”.
They went to sea and he never made it back. I learned they lose a few every cruise for no known reason.
There's a reason, it's called Flight Ops - especially dangerous at night ...
It’s called Ops, period in the rest of the Navy. Everything at sea, undersea and in the air is dangerous. Night carrier ops are really tough, although I had a couple of rough times in helos.
Second hand report only. A man I knew served onboard during the event. He and another aircraft mechanic (one white, one black, BTW) climbed up into the intake of an F-8 on the hangar deck and pulled the engine cover up behind them to hide from the riots and the Marines trying to restore order. They figured it was safer to stay out of the way until everything calmed down.
Interesting book to find, Thanks 11th......Was an Airdale at the time {on a different CVA)....the usual cruise was 6 months and 6 months in home port. This incident, I recall, was about this carrier being sent back again with out a break again to S.E Asia again...Don’t remember why it was though...
Isan’t it amazing how little things change? Reading the Kitty Hawk and Constellation sections of the report its the same old gangs of blacks beating up on whites and then claiming racism.
Racial Incidents Onboard USS Kitty Hawk (CVA-63) and USS Constellation (CVA-64) in 1972.
Wow! Never heard of it and now I know why!
I didn’t see the incident but I was in the Army and drew a CID investigation for being observed being at a Kitty Hawk protest in Tacoma in 1972, I was merely watching it and talking to participants of the protest.
In the 1980s when I was with the French a couple of them were critical that American NCOs and officers carried unloaded pistols and referenced the Kitty Hawk and parts of ships that were off limits to leadership and unsafe, the French keep their pistols loaded and don’t take guff from militant or violent French GIs.
WOW !!!
I can’t believe how quick I found that report - I should probably save it as it may get ‘Deep Sixed’ once the Navy finds its out there ...
While I could easily be mistaken, I thought that a normal carrier Westpac at the time was at least nine months, if not a year. (My DDG did a six month Westpac in late 1972 but that was typical for the smaller ships.)
Bob I was on a different carrier so I don’t know about the K.H. (My point was they were motivated to riot because of being sent back for another cruise with out a break..6 mo. or 9 mo. is a long at sea.And liberty’s don’t cut it after a while)
You’re right that time at sea seems a lot longer than it actually is, even with fairly frequent port calls. (Of course, beautiful downtown Olongapo is one tourist destination that you just don’t want to miss out on.) Even just an unexpected week’s delay waiting for our relief ship to arrive on the gun line seemed to drag on.
Isan’t it amazing how little things change? Reading the Kitty Hawk and Constellation sections of the report its the same old gangs of blacks beating up on whites and then claiming racism.
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I served in catapults on an earlier ship, CVA-42, in 1960-62. Black on white fighting broke out below on the hangar deck one night when we were in the Med. There were some major injuries before it was stopped after a couple of hours. A couple of nights later, one or two of the instigators just “disappeared”.
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