Pilots Fear 'Vietnik' Phone Calls

Item

derivative filename/jpeg

363-04759.pdf

Digital Object Identifier

363-04759

Title

Pilots Fear 'Vietnik' Phone Calls

Description

Article published in the New York Herald Tribune about harassing phone calls by American opponents to the Vietnam War to the families of pilots, page unknown

AI Usage Disclosure

Draft transcripts were automatically generated via Google Document AI and are currently under review. Please report significant errors to Archives & Special Collections at archives@unl.edu.

Transcript

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- Page 1
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Pilots Fear Vietnik' Phone Calls
By Beverly Deepe
A Special Correspondent
ABOARD THE CARRIER
KITTY HAWK.
A secret fear of pilots on
this aircraft carrier is the
threatening and intimidating
anonymous telephone calls be-
ing received by their families
from what the pilots call
Vietniks.
"Some of our mothers and
wives have been receiving
phone calls every hour on the
hour all night for many nights
by people using foul lan-
guage," one pilot explained.
"Even the American public
doesn't know about this."
The pilot of a $3 million.
A-6a Intruder-who had flown
in the first raids as air strikes
resumed against North Viet
Nam Monday-said: "The
wives of two of my friends
have been receiving phone
calls saying in so many words,
'your husband is a fink for
fighting in Viet Nam.'
UNLISTED
"The only reaction from the
husbands," he continued "was
to get unlisted phone num-
bers."
Another Intruder pilot said
his wife had also been receiv-
ing phone calls, but he
snapped, "I don't want to
discuss it with anyone." He,
too, has told his wife to ob-
tain an unlisted phone num-
ber at home.
"We know that the Inde-
pendence ran into some of this
when it pulled into home port,"
another pilot explained. "The
wives were telephoned and told
not to meet the ship because
it was showing support for our
activities in Viet Nam."
All the pilots refused to give
their names-and, more im-
portant, their home addresses
-to correspondents.
One Naval information of
ficer said he had to request
more than 20 fighter pilots to
appear on a national Amer-
ican television program be-
t
DOMESTIC CONCERN-The jet pilots stationed aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, shown
here steaming in the Pacific, have another concern beyond their bombing missions
in North Viet Nam. Their families in the U. S. have been receiving nocturnal threats.
fore finding who would vol- in Binghamton had not en-
unteer.
"Of course, we pilots hes-
itate in talking to the press,"
one explained, "because we
don't want to give our names
and get a big spread in the
newspapers back home. The
Vietniks just look up the
names in the telephone book,
call up and cause turmoil in
our families.
"Also, the enemy is using
psychological warfare and
this information and creating
grief among the pilots shot
down over enemy territory.
countered any anonymous
phone calls.
"The phone calls vary with
the area of the country that
the family is living in," one
pilot explained. "It's not just
New York or Pennsylvania.
It's not just Kitty Hawk
-but other ships as
It's not just officers, but also
some of the enlisted men as
well.
VARIATIONS
well.
"The phone calls threaten
"The Vietniks have ways of in one way in Virginia, for
procuring information and example, but in another area
feeding it to the Communists, maybe it's just foul language
which we haven't encoun- and intimidation. One phone
tered in past wars.".
call from one group threat-
Another pilot said his wife ened eventual harm to the
family because the husband
was over here fighting and it
wasn't our business to be
here. None of the men like
to talk about it-they just
accept it as a side hazard of
the job."
Some of the pilots brushed
off the importance of the
Vietniks in America; others
were bitter.
The pilot from Binghamton
referred to the Vietniks as
"the great unwashed back
home." Another called them
"ridiculous, but not danger-
ous-just kinda stupid."
And another bitterly re-
marked, "I wish they'd put
the Vietniks out here, give
them a gun-and then we'd
see if they'd throw away the
gun and put up placards."

Date

1966, Feb. 6

Subject

Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Public opinion--United States; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements--United States; Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Navy--United States; Kitty Hawk (Aircraft carrier); Families of military personnel

Location

Aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, likely in the South China Sea

Coordinates

15.4881; 114.4048

Container

B4, F6

Format

newspaper clippings

Collection Number

MS 363

Collection Title

Beverly Deepe Keever, Journalism Papers

Creator

Keever, Beverly Deepe

Copyright Information

These images are for educational use only. To inquire about usage or publication, please contact Archives & Special Collections.

Publisher

Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries

Language

English