As I was watching this, I was pondering the way that any presentation of history contains the biases of its author. Then at the 1:19 mark the image at right showed up – and I went from disinterested observer to battling with YouTube to freeze that shot :)
That scene could have been taken on the fantail of the ship I was stationed on in April, 1975 (the USS Long Beach CGN-9). I could be in that photo, as I was in a working party just like that one, pushing helicopters off the fantail and into the South China Sea. I found the photo online, though – it was actually taken on the USS Blue Ridge, a communications ship that was in the same task force my ship was in. We worked just as fast as we could, so that the next helicopter circling overhead, full of refugees fleeing for their very lives, could land and find safety.
Here's the video that the image at right came from:
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