Watching a lot of streaming PBS lately since the streaming series I usually watch have been exhausted. One of which, of course, is the Ken Burns Documentary on the Vietnam War. Its a breathtaking series. Everyone should watch it. What is rather stunning about it though is how much it leaves out that was going on at the same time and adjacent to the war. I'm not blaming Burns--it was 7 episodes; each one about 2 hours in length and it was pretty comprehensive.
Anyway...the other day I was back in Texas and driving around the west side of San Antonio. I look up and I see the underbelly of this giant C-5 aircraft. It's hard to describe how massive these planes are. So when I get home, I looked up the specs on this plane and there is a link to Operation BabyLift.
For those who don't know, this was Ford's Plan to get some orphaned children out of VietNam and bring them to America. One featured a C-5A (I think it was a "A") that tragically crashed.
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Another piece of the documentary--episode 6--talked about operation Linebacker and Linebacker II. Essentially every aircraft we had within a thousand miles was used to pound North Vietnam (that is an exaggeration of course). Many of whom were carrier based aircraft. One of the carriers was the Kitty Hawk. I found out through the exploration adjacent to Linebacker that there was a race riot on the Kitty Hawk during the operation. Holy shit!
en.wikipedia.org
It is incredible what is not reported. I don't mean to say that there was some sort of plot to not report it or anything...it's just crazy what is overlooked or lost in the shuffle or what falls back into the woodwork.
Anyway...the other day I was back in Texas and driving around the west side of San Antonio. I look up and I see the underbelly of this giant C-5 aircraft. It's hard to describe how massive these planes are. So when I get home, I looked up the specs on this plane and there is a link to Operation BabyLift.
For those who don't know, this was Ford's Plan to get some orphaned children out of VietNam and bring them to America. One featured a C-5A (I think it was a "A") that tragically crashed.
=====
Another piece of the documentary--episode 6--talked about operation Linebacker and Linebacker II. Essentially every aircraft we had within a thousand miles was used to pound North Vietnam (that is an exaggeration of course). Many of whom were carrier based aircraft. One of the carriers was the Kitty Hawk. I found out through the exploration adjacent to Linebacker that there was a race riot on the Kitty Hawk during the operation. Holy shit!
USS Kitty Hawk riot - Wikipedia
It is incredible what is not reported. I don't mean to say that there was some sort of plot to not report it or anything...it's just crazy what is overlooked or lost in the shuffle or what falls back into the woodwork.
