USS Kitty Hawk Action - Color 1971 - F-4 A-7 RA-5 A-3 launch recovery arming Vietnam Viet Nam

The aircraft carrier is USS Kitty Hawk, a postwar conventionally-powered ship. The time is January, 1971 and Kitty Hawk's crews are off the coast of Vietnam, launching interdiction airstrikes. The sitcom All in the Family makes its television debut in January. Singer Kid Rock is born that month. The instantly recognizable theme from Shaft debuts later in 1971. Gasoline costs around 36 cents a gallon that year. Median cost of a new house in the U.S. is $25,200. Medal of Honor recipient and actor Audie Murphy will die in a plane crash in May. Voting age in the United States drops from 21 to 18 years with the 26th Amendment. Meanwhile, Kitty Hawk's crews armed A-7s and F-4s, and launched and recovered these jets as well as RA-5 Vigilantes and A-3 Skywarriors. (26 JUNE 2025 NOTE: This video received what we believe was an erroneous copyright claim for audio between about 6 and 10 minutes into the video. Our dispute was denied by the claimant, and litigating this issue, even though we believe we are in the right, is not affordable. The video is now silent during that time period to remove the claim.) Thank you for watching the Airailimages Channel on YouTube, and especially thanks for subscribing to Airailimages.