The War at Sea

On July 1, 1970, Elmo Zumwalt, Jr. was appointed Chief of Naval Operations for the United States Navy.  Zumwalt was surprised by the promotion.  He had been serving in Vietnam as commander of in-country naval forces since September 1968, a position he considered punishment for his initial opposition to U.S. involvement in the war. Still, his tenure in South Vietnam had been largely successful: among other things, he instituted the swift boat campaign and the use of the defoliant Agent Orange, both considered at the time to be positive enhancements to the war effort.

Zumwalt decided that his first move as CNO would be to tackle the entrenched institutional racism of the U.S. Navy.  In December 1970, he issued a directive called Equal Opportunity in the Navy which included a step-by-step program for eliminating racism.  The policy, with its minute and far-reaching provisions, was to be in place by January 15, 1971.

At the same time, Zumwalt had to address the problem of declining re-enlistment.  In Vietnam, he had seen the demoralized state of the average sailor and decided that it was caused by the Navy itself.  The enlisted men could and did accept the dangers and discomforts of war; what they hated were the seemingly endless “Mickey Mouse” regulations that governed life in the Navy.  Zumwalt decided to “humanize” the Navy, issuing directives with titles like “Demeaning and Abrasive Regulations, Elimination of.”   This eventually earned him a Time magazine cover with the caption “Military Goes Mod.”

Elmo Zumwalt, III, also served in Vietnam, also in the Navy.  In 1983 he was diagnosed with lymphoma; he died in 1988 at the age of 42.  Both he and his father came to believe that his cancer was caused by his exposure to Agent Orange.  In 1986 they published a joint autobiography, My Father, My Son.  Though it may have killed him, Elmo, III stood with his father in maintaining that the use of Agent Orange had saved more lives than it had destroyed.  Their biography was made into a television movie which aired shortly before his death.

This tragic story naturally attracted attention and ultimately served to overshadow other aspects of Elmo Zumwalt, Jr.’s naval career.  A book published just this year, though, brings his years as CNO back to the forefront.  Troubled Water: Race, Mutiny, and Bravery on the USS Kitty Hawk by Gregory A. Freeman tells the story of a riot that took place on October 12, 1972 when the USS Kitty Hawk, an aircraft carrier, was stationed off the coast of South Vietnam.  Riot is the official word: The United States Navy maintains that there has never been and never will be a mutiny in the U.S. Navy.  Freeman is not so sure.

The 5,000 men on the Kitty Hawk had been there for nearly nine months.  Several scheduled returns to San Diego had been rescinded at the last minute.  Aircraft carriers are often described as “little cities” because of their size, but they are rather more like giant metal warrens than anything else.  Far from serving “before the mast,” most of the sailors spent their time “below” toiling for weeks at a time without seeing the sun.

Zumwalt’s directives had produced some changes on the Kitty Hawk.  There were 285 African American sailors, including the new second-in-command, Executive Officer Benjamin Cloud, who had joined the crew in August.  Some of the more “abrasive” regulations had been eliminated. 

On the other hand, the berthing quarters were largely segregated as were off-duty activities.  Captain Marland Townsend didn’t care about sideburns or mustaches, but he liked to run a tight ship and did so.  Many recruiting officers, under pressure to improve their numbers, had made unrealistic promises of training and career opportunities to the men they signed up.  Most new men found themselves instead relegated to grueling hours in low-level positions.

Freeman offers a dramatic and objective account gleaned from naval records and eyewitness interviews.  The ship erupted into violence on October 12, 1972.  Though many of their grievances were similar, the crew split along racial lines, attacking on the basis of skin color and nothing else.  Conflicting orders to the Marines who “policed” the aircraft carrier served to escalate the violence.  As the night wore on, the same thought was in every mind, “Where is the captain?”  In the end, the ship was saved by one man’s act of inspired courage.

The USS Kitty Hawk was fully operational by 8:00 am the next morning.  The consequences for the men aboard were more far-reaching.  Twenty-nine men faced criminal charges; others life-long disabilities or derailed careers.  In November, 1972, the U.S. House of Representatives launched an investigation into the “disciplinary” problems in the U.S. Navy.  In the end they concluded that institutional racism was, in fact, the root cause.  Full speed ahead, Admiral Zumwalt.

(Photograph from mmilin32, Creative Commons, Flickr.com)