USS Kitty Hawk riot

Racial conflicts increase in US military By the early 1970s, racial conflicts were causing serious problems in the US Armed Forces. Colonel Robert D. Heinl, Jr. stated in a 1971 study in the Armed Forces Journal called “The Collapse of the Armed Forces”, that “Internally speaking, racial conflicts and drugs…are tearing the services apart today.” Historians of the Vietnam War have documented that non-white GIs were often given the dirtiest jobs and frequently sent to the front lines in combat situations. A task force reporting to the Secretary of Defense at the time, Melvin R. Laird, found that racial discrimination in the military was not confined to the military but was “also a problem of a racist society”. Historian Gerald Gill contended that by 1970 most Black soldiers thought the war was a mistake, “hypocritical in intent and racist and imperialist by design.” One soldier was quoted as saying that Black soldiers were sent on risky assignments by white officers "so that 'there would be one less nigger to worry about back home.'" Racial problems in the US Navy In 1972 the problems that Heinl and others were describing were about to explode in the Navy. As the ground war stalemated and Army grunts increasingly refused to fight or resisted the war in various other ways, the U.S. "turned increasingly to air bombardment", much of it launched from US Navy aircraft carriers. By 1972 there were more than twice as many aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin as previously, plus they were spending "a record number of days at sea with a grueling pace of flight operations". What happened on the Kitty Hawk in October 1972, dramatically exposed the intersection of discontent over working and safety conditions, and racism. Racial incidents on the Kitty Hawk In June 1972, Captain Marland Townsend became the new commanding officer of the Kitty Hawk. In his first few weeks onboard, he presided over four "interracial disciplinary matters" that would play a significant role "in the shipboard upheaval that followed." In the first, two Black crewmen accused of assaulting a white sailor were brought before Townsend in a captain's mast. One was sentenced to three days in the brig on bread and water, while the other was sentenced to 30 days in the brig. The ship's mast proceedings were all taped and broadcast later for the crew, so everyone watching onboard saw the outcome and heard Townsend make "a statement to the effect that anyone who fights or commits assault on his ship can be expected to be dealt with very harshly and severely." Just three days later a white sailor was brought before Townsend accused of calling a new Black recruit a racial epithet and hitting him in the back with his fist. According to Congressional testimony from the ship's executive officer (XO), Commander Benjamin Cloud, who was of Black and Native American descent, the Black crewmembers felt this "would be a very interesting and good case" to test the Captain's words, because in "both cases, there was obviously an assault involved." And yet, they watched him dismiss all the charges against the white sailor. On September 13, several Black sailors reported being assaulted by Filipino locals at the instigation of a white sailor. The allegations against the white sailor were lodged by 5 Black sailors from the Kitty Hawk. The white sailor went before Townsend at a captain's mast, but received no punishment. When Townsend was questioned about this by the Congressional committee, he responded that the incident was "circulated by blacks" and that "[o]nly a few blacks made the charge". Around midnight on October 9, a Black airman was returning to the Kitty Hawk when he claimed he was called a racial slur and thrown to the ground by two white sailors who continued to assault him. The two white sailors denied the assault, but two other white sailors from another ship gave statements to the Naval base security confirming the Black airman's story. They also noted that the Black sailor could not fight back because his arm was in a cast. The lead base investigator declined to take any action on the incident saying, "I didn't pursue the matter any further." When the Black sailor returned to the ship, he told other Black sailors about what happened, making them all "really unhappy". Captain Townsend conducted his own investigation into the incident, concluding that it was "black word against white word", despite the two white sailors from another ship who had corroborated the Black sailor's story. He also declined to take any action. ==The riot==

On October 12, Kitty Hawk began participating in Operation Linebacker off the coast of North Vietnam. The ship "had been at sea nearly nine months under some of the most demanding conditions that a carrier crew had faced since World War II." The renewal of combat operations intensified the pressure and work pace onboard, "racial tensions were approaching a fast boil", and more racial incidents began to occur. He confirmed this in his testimony before a congressional committee where he was asked whether he grabbed for his gun to prevent it from "falling into unauthorized hands or for the purpose of using it?" He responded, "Both Sir." Commander Cloud, confirmed this in his testimony at a court-martial proceeding: When one of the Marines was asked whether he had been ordered to also break up groups of white sailors, he said, "I don't recall that it was ever brought up, sir." More than two Further compounding the situation, the Marines recalled hearing Carlucci say they should break up groups of "more than two." The Marines continued to use their nightsticks and forced the Black sailors to the deck as they handcuffed them. One Airman was handcuffed so tightly that he was in terrible pain. In fact, the cuffs were on so tight that the Marines who placed him in the ship's brig were unable to remove them. The XO recalled the airman being brought to him with cuffs "cutting into his wrists", so much so that he "was hysterical". The cuffs were finally removed after more than an hour. He commanded the entire crew to go about their "normal business" and settle down. He also ordered the Marines to not use any weapons and later told the congressional committee that he wanted them to be "right where I could control them. Townsend stated, "no whites were involved in any rampaging." There "was no mutual combat", he insisted, only groups of Black sailors assaulting "individual or smaller groups of white sailors." He also told the congressional committee that there "were no black resentments...and there was no unusual tenseness about the ship." Townsend dispersed the group and met with any sailors who were still upset in the forecastle until around 6 a.m. In the morning, Cloud was told about a large group of around 150 white sailors gathering in the berthing compartment becoming increasingly angry. They were readying themselves for what they thought would be an outright racial battle for control of Kitty Hawk. He went to talk to them and was dismissed as being "nothing more than a nigger, just like all the rest of them". When Cloud reminded them he was the executive officer of the ship and threatened them with legal action if they proceeded, they backed down. Cloud reported the incident to Townsend and then continued to talk to concerned sailors, both white and Black, throughout the morning, reducing the threat of additional confrontations. By midmorning, the confrontations had completely ended, and the Kitty Hawk resumed normal operations. ==Extraordinary security measures==

In the afternoon of October 13, Townsend put the ship into "extraordinary security measures". He instituted Condition II, which was one step down from General Quarters, or battle stations, and one step above the ship's normal wartime cruising watch. He also doubled the master-at-arms force, placed an officer or petty officer in every berthing compartment all night, and ordered Condition Zebra, which meant "every other passageway" on the second deck was closed off, creating "kind of like a zigzag or a puzzle trying to get through the ship." Townsend described it as putting everyone "under complete surveillance." More, he began banning any group meetings and made his reasoning clear in his congressional testimony. He said, "a group of 15 blacks...a large group of that size is an abnormal group. You don't see 15 whites get together in a group that size, so you can't say why don't you break up a group of 15 whites, because people don't congregate in groups of that size." ==Courts-martial==

By late October 1972, Townsend had charged 25 Black sailors with assaults, and 21 of them with rioting. He referred all but one of these to special courts-martial. This was the first time the Navy had tried such a large number of defendants, the first time sailors had ever been charged with rioting, and the first time a large group "of defendants were locked up in the brig for months before their trials." There was also the racism and perjury admitted to by Seaman Laurie, as described above, which led to one conviction being overturned and another being dropped entirely. Laurie also alleged racial prejudice on the part of the ''Kitty Hawk's legal officer. According to Laurie, he never asked the white sailors if they fought back "because he knows we did". The New York Times'' reported that the Navy was "having difficulty" proving that Black crewmen "incited a racial riot aboard the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk". "Navy prosecutors", the article continued, "have had to be content with convictions on lesser charges of simple assault, breach of the peace and insubordination." ==Classification as a riot==

Given these results, did a riot actually take place? Right from the beginning, questions were raised. As the quote cited above from the Black Navy official observed, "Anytime you have a so-called race riot and you lock up 25 blacks, that has to raise some questions." In short, it requires a group effort designed to incite terror. As one of the military defense attorneys put it during an early pretrial hearing onboard Kitty Hawk, "no evidence has been submitted by the government of a furtherance of a common purpose.... What went on seemed so disorganized, so randomized around the different parts of the ship, it seemed to really be more of a reaction to confrontations". The testimony in most of the courts-martials "described individuals or small groups of blacks and whites clashing in scattered encounters, with highly contradictory identifications as to the aggressors." If anything resembling a riot did take place, it involved the provocative actions of some of the white crewmembers on the ship's mezzanine described above. JAG attorney and military judge Marv Truhe argued in his book Against All Tides: The Untold Story of the USS Kitty Hawk Race Riot that those actions by the white petty officer and the sailors with him were, in fact, "a textbook violation of the UCMJ offense of inciting a riot." He quotes Commander Cloud's testimony that a group of white sailors on the mezzanine "were 'taunting' the Black sailors, 'hurling verbal abuses," and 'egging the marines' on in the altercation below." ==Rush to judgement==

From the morning after the events of October 12-13, Captain Townsend and the Navy's official onboard JAG inquiry, led by Captain Frank Haak, sought to prove that what took place consisted essentially of unprovoked attacks by Black crewmen against innocent whites. This uncritical assumption continued through the subsequent November-December 1972 hearings of the House Armed Services Committee, and was often reflected in news reporting of the incident. As discussed above, Townsend testified that "no whites were involved in any rampaging", that there "was no mutual combat", and that only groups of Black sailors assaulted "individual or smaller groups of white sailors." But, as pointed out by Representative Ronald F. Dellums and others, this investigation had also interviewed none of the Black crewmen involved. When Mr. Hicks was asked about this by the New York Times, he "acknowledged that his investigators had not talked to black defendants charged in the incidents because they had refused to be interviewed." He didn't mention the men's trials were pending and, therefore, had been advised not to talk to anyone but their lawyers. Dellums, by contrast, interviewed "lawyers, sailors and military defense counsel for the Kitty Hawk sailors, as well as...other San Diego naval base personnel", and charged that "the special committee did less than an adequate job". As for the allegation of low "mental capacity", it appears to be a complete fiction, with no testimony or evidence to substantiate it. In the only congressional testimony about this in relation to the ''Kitty Hawk's'' Black crew, a Boatswain's mate confirmed that the Black sailors working for him had above average military classification tests. Further, the defendants service record summaries compiled by the Haak investigation showed that most of the defendants were high school graduates with above average scores in their classification tests. ==References==