Posted on Oct 12, 2016
Racial violence breaks out aboard U.S. Navy ships - Oct 12, 1972 - HISTORY.com
5.21K
37
17
12
12
0
On this day, racial violence flares aboard U.S. Navy ships. Forty six sailors are injured in a race riot involving more than 100 sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk enroute to her station in the Gulf of Tonkin off Vietnam. The incident broke out when a black sailor was summoned for questioning regarding an altercation that took place during the crew’s liberty in Subic Bay (in the Philippines). The sailor refused to make a statement and he and his friends started a brawl that resulted in sixty sailors being injured during the fighting. Eventually 26 men, all black, were charged with assault and rioting and were ordered to appear before a court-martial in San Diego.
Four days later, a group of about 12 black sailors aboard the USS Hassayampa, a fleet oiler docked at Subic Bay, told ship’s officers that they would not sail with the ship when the ship put to sea. The group demanded the return of money that allegedly had been stolen from the wallet of one of the group. The ship’s leadership failed to act quickly enough to defuse the situation and later that day, a group of seven white sailors were set upon by the group and beaten. It took the arrival of a Marine detachment to restore order. Six black sailors were charged with assault and rioting.
These incidents indicated the depth of the racial problems in the Navy. All of the services had experienced similar problems earlier, but the Navy had lagged behind the others in addressing the issues that contributed to the racial tensions that erupted on the Kitty Hawk and the Hassayampa. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations, instituted new race relations programs and made significant changes to Naval Regulations to address many of the very real issues raised by the black sailors regarding racial injustice in the Navy.
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCPT (Join to see)COL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnellSSG Leo Bell SFC William Farrell
Four days later, a group of about 12 black sailors aboard the USS Hassayampa, a fleet oiler docked at Subic Bay, told ship’s officers that they would not sail with the ship when the ship put to sea. The group demanded the return of money that allegedly had been stolen from the wallet of one of the group. The ship’s leadership failed to act quickly enough to defuse the situation and later that day, a group of seven white sailors were set upon by the group and beaten. It took the arrival of a Marine detachment to restore order. Six black sailors were charged with assault and rioting.
These incidents indicated the depth of the racial problems in the Navy. All of the services had experienced similar problems earlier, but the Navy had lagged behind the others in addressing the issues that contributed to the racial tensions that erupted on the Kitty Hawk and the Hassayampa. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations, instituted new race relations programs and made significant changes to Naval Regulations to address many of the very real issues raised by the black sailors regarding racial injustice in the Navy.
@ SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas Capt Christopher MuellerCPT (Join to see)COL Mikel J. BurroughsSgt Joe LaBrancheSSgt (Join to see)Capt Seid WaddellSrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F.PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom EarleyPVT James Strait Alan K. PO1 William "Chip" NagelSGT John " Mac " McConnellSSG Leo Bell SFC William Farrell
Racial violence breaks out aboard U.S. Navy ships - Oct 12, 1972 - HISTORY.com
Posted from history.com
Vietnam War
Warfare
Military History
American History
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 9
5
5
0
Racial tensions in the draft era seemed to get worse in the 1970's SP5 Mark Kuzinski. I saw it first hand at my first duty Station of Fort Campbell on May 22, 1975 when post leadership decided to have an outdoor concert which included a mix of country and western, soft rock, rock and roll and black power music - "Pure Prairie League, Rufus, Earl Scruggs and Joe Cocker entertained 17,000 troops and their families at the army base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The concert, known as Music - You're My Mother, fails to break even at the box office, and base officials cancel another show planned for June 14th, the 200th anniversary of the army."
After Rufus left the stage, black soldiers began to mix it up and start fights as they exited in groups. It was a sad way to spend the concert evening.
http://www.superseventies.com/sdmc_65_May_75.html
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Christopher Mueller Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) SGT Forrest Stewart SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert Hawks SGT Robert George SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
After Rufus left the stage, black soldiers began to mix it up and start fights as they exited in groups. It was a sad way to spend the concert evening.
http://www.superseventies.com/sdmc_65_May_75.html
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. "Bill" Price Capt Christopher Mueller Capt Seid Waddell CW5 (Join to see) SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas SGM David W. Carr LOM, DMSM MP SGT SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) SGT Forrest Stewart SGT John " Mac " McConnell SGT Robert Hawks SGT Robert George SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
(5)
(0)
Capt Seid Waddell
LTC Stephen F., ugly times, those. Do you remember the Zebra killings and the De Mau Mau murders?
(2)
(0)
LTC Stephen F.
Capt Seid Waddell - Yes I do Zebra killings were in California and the Mau Mau murders were in Kenya
(1)
(0)
Capt Seid Waddell
LTC Stephen F., the De Mau Mau murders were done by black Viet Nam vets that had to kill a white person as an initiation rite.
(1)
(0)
PFC Jim Cashler
I was at this concert in Fort Campbell , I recall Chaka Khan which was the second last artist of the day long concert was on stage and a few African Americans climbed to the towers that were video taping the concert which I believe was to be showed on the show Midnight Special. As they were told to get down and not doing so someone throw a bottle at them and then all heck broke out, not so much black on white just a mix of a brawling. As it was on post and everyone was invite meaning non Military personal as well. I was a hospital personal worker, after the fight was calm down about 10 minutes those whom stayed to watch the last artist Joe Cocker come on stage with a six pack still in the ring said hey we really have a great party here. I mentioned to my friends as soon as the fight started lets get to the fount of the stage which was the safes place on the infield.
Till the bottle flew this was a great day with all no racist issues. Needless to say the Military confiscated the video tapes never to be air on Saturday Night Special.
JC ...Wisconsin
Till the bottle flew this was a great day with all no racist issues. Needless to say the Military confiscated the video tapes never to be air on Saturday Night Special.
JC ...Wisconsin
(1)
(0)
2
2
0
I was onboard for that riot on the Hawk The tension had been building for a while. The Navy had started this program which was bringing black guys in as a social experiment under the belief that they'd train for good jobs to help them out of the cycle of poverty but most of them were in no way qualified or capable of doing those jobs so they ended up doing scut work.That caused huge resentment.The black power movement was infiltrating the military plus the government couldn't fill their ranks so it was unofficial policy of judicial systems across the country to tell criminals that it was jail or the military so we had a lot of people that had no business in the Navy. We'd been pulled out of the states a month early on a weeks notice due to the Tet offensive and kept getting extended on our tour so we had no idea when we'd return states side. We were operating under a frantic pace for months and were wound pretty tight.The riot started as a simple bar fight between a black sailor and a white one at the base club in the PI. It got blown out of proportion and turned into us against whitey and the Navy . The next night on our way back to Yankee Station it went off and the riot took off. The Navy wouldn't use the word mutiny but at times it was right on the edge of being one. There's a book finally written about it by Gregory Freeman that covers it pretty accurately.https://www.amazon.com/Troubled-Water-Mutiny-Bravery-Kitty/dp/ [login to see]
Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk: Gregory A. Freeman:...
Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk [Gregory A. Freeman] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. 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
(2)
(0)
2
2
0
My neighbor told me about his personal experience aboard Kitty Hawk during this incident. He did not seem fond of the guys that started it...
(2)
(0)
Read This Next
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google