A little background story about that era.I never heard this story.
https://www.navytimes.com/military-...kitty-hawk-incident-fueled-fleet-wide-unrest/
Race riot at sea — 1972 Kitty Hawk incident fueled fleet-wide unrest
By October 1972, in addition to the present racial strains, tensions were beginning to mount on the ship. According to dates and port visits documented in the Kitty Hawk 1972 cruise book, by Oct. 12, it had been 239 days since the ship left San Diego — nearly eight months. For 202 of those days the ship had been out at sea.
A record 155 of those days had been spent "on the line," which is what the Navy called Yankee Station — a position off North Vietnam that launched an average of 120 sorties daily in round-the-clock flight operations. This meant that the ship only spent a total of 37 days in port since leaving home. Seven of those visits had been to the then U.S. Naval Base in Subic Bay Republic of the Philippines. Seven others came on a port visit to Hong Kong.
No excuses for that POS sniping criminal but those at sea tours broke good men and turned a few into maniacs that were easy to manipulate by those that wanted a war in this country.But the fallout lasted for much of the 1970s and into the 1980s as many within the Navy remained polarized along racial lines — though none ever reached the level of violence that occurred on the Kitty Hawks on October, 1972.




