Against All Tides

The Untold Story of the USS Kitty Hawk Race Riot

By: Marv Truhe

Narrated by: David Stifel

Simmering racial tensions inflamed by discriminatory punitive measures sparked a violent confrontation aboard the USS Kitty Hawk while it was engaged in air strikes off the coast of North Vietnam.

The US Navy charged Black sailors with rioting and assaults on White sailors in an incident referred to as a race riot, while totally ignoring violent unprovoked assaults committed by White sailors and Marines.

Author Marv Truhe was a Navy JAG defense lawyer seeking justice for the accused Black sailors. Truhe possesses one of the most complete collections of original source documents of the Kitty Hawk incident and its legal aftermath—trial transcripts, investigation reports, hundreds of sworn statements and medical reports, federal court pleadings, and case files and witness interviews.

How could virtually all official and unofficial accounts of the incident have placed blame for the incident solely on twenty-three Black sailors? How could they have been subjected to blatant racial injustices without their story being told until now?

It is time to reveal the uncomfortable answers to these questions and expose the injustices perpetrated against these twenty-three young men.

©2023 Marvin D. Truhe (P)2023 Tantor

Naval Unequal Justice during the Vietnam War

Anyone interested in Naval History during the Vietnam War period or who served during this time should read this book. Marv has written an open, informative, and honest account of the riots that occurred among the sailors on the USS Kitty Hawk Aircraft Carrier during the Vietnam War and how sailor's lives and careers were negatively impacted during and after their Naval duty It is a fact that during this time in modern Naval History there was unequal justice and a trampling of the 14th Amendment (particularly the first section of the Amendent known as the Equal Protection Clause) in disciplinary and Court Marshal hearings. Any Naval Officer who was trained or served during this era is familiar with this type of disparity when justice was applied to non-white sailors. In fact, when I attended Naval OCS in Newport, RI in late 1960 to 1970 my Naval ORG instructor told my company that the 'justice policy' of the Navy, when handling altercations between black and white sailors was to 'assume' from the start hat the altercation was due to the behavior of the black sailor(s) and not the white sailor(s). When I heard this, I was shocked and immediately spoke out in class and said as a Naval Officer, I would not carry out this unfair,unjust and racist policy. As a result of this, I was reprimanded by the instructor, and this outburst, followed by a change in my billet assignment upon completing OCS, resulted not being commissioned. as an Ensign. By the grace of God, I did separate from the Navy with an Honorable Discharge (although my discharge rank on my DD-214 was noted as Seaman Apprentice). I did not realize that other black sailors were discharged dishonorably in a similar manner, Some even being dishonarably discharged! This negatively impacts the rest of ones life and career. Thank you for telling this story and showing me how unjust policies can lead to chaos that impairs the fighting efficiency and combat effectiveness of any military organization.