17. The Navy implemented racial awareness training during the Vietnam era
The Vietnam War was not the only issue which divided the United States in the 1960s and 1970s. Racial tensions led to unrest and riots in several American cities. The same tensions were felt in the military. In the fall of 1972, tensions between black and white sailors assigned to USS Kitty Hawk erupted in violence in sections of Olangapo, Subic Bay, in the Philippines. A barroom brawl involving more than two dozen members of the crew and numerous shore patrols was broken up by US Marines. Two days later, as Kitty Hawk was operating off the coast of Vietnam, violence broke out aboard the ship, with multiple racially motivated attacks on both white and black sailors.
The Navy designated the event as a race riot in its investigation and aftermath, which included 27 court-martials. Following the incident (and similar events on other ships and shore facilities) it instituted for the first time in its history racial awareness training. The Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, concluded that “racism was endemic in the entire structure of the Navy”. Equal opportunity awareness training and a series of programs and initiatives were included at all levels of the Navy’s training system, as well as became a part of operations.
