The USS Coral Sea crew numbered over 4,000. It's like a small city on water, made up of cooks, aircraft mechanics, boiler room engineers, police and pilots.
Bobby Musa (left) and Larry Harris (right), speaking at a street corner rally near the main gate to NAS Alameda. For many of the sailors, speaking their mind from street corners and public stages was a new experience.
This sailors spoke up at a rally across from the base gate without having been an active member of the SOS movement. Speaking out often exposed sailors to harassment from the ship's command.
This Marine Corps officer was there to keep the rally from blocking the base gates. Note the riding crop in his right hand.
Two civilian supporters of the SOS campaign leaflet sailors as they drive to work at NAS Alameda
Civilian demonstrators leafletted at the gates to the navy base where the USS Coral Sea and other carriers were docked. Base security "white hats" were told to keep the gates unobstructed.
Civilian supporters from Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco turned out often to support the SOS sailors' anti-war petition campaign.
Outside the gates to Alameda Naval Air Station, the San Francisco Mime Troupe kept everyone in high spirits.
Picnics provided a time and place for sailors to enter the civilian world for awhile, get better acquainted, build trust, and plan. These get-togethers were put together by the civilian supporters of the SOS movement.
Some of the leaders of the Stop Our Ship movement are marching down Market Street, at the front of a peace march on Nov. 6, 1971. They are carrying a wooden model of the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea on their shoulders like a coffin.
This anti-war march threaded many issues together, including the banning of nuclear weapons testing in Amchitka, Alaska.
A contingent of veterans joins the march in support of the USS Coral Sea sailors movement to stop their ship from sailing to Vietnam.
This sailor is happy to be marching with the Stop Our Ship group from the USS Coral Sea. This contingent led this anti-war march down Market Street on November 6, 1971.
This sailor's jacket reflects the ports-of-call where his ship, the USS Coral Sea, has called. At the top of his jacket, he added: "Keep it home. SOS."
Dissent among sailors on the USS Coral Sea was easy to find in 1971. However, it was not easy to shape it into a movement. A group of anti-war sailors tackled that challenge by petitioning Congress to keep their aircraft carrier from deploying to Vietnam. They started the Stop Our Ship movement, found civilian supporters in San Francisco to help them, and gathered 1,200 signatures in 100 days.