Alumni Spotlight - Marv Truhe (ME 67)

Alumnus finally tells the story he's been carrying for 50 years

Marv Truhe (ME 67) was 27 years old when racial tensions sparked the USS Kitty Hawk Riot of 1972. The aircraft carrier was engaged in airstrikes off the coast of North Vietnam during the Vietnam War when a conflict broke out between sailors the night of Oct. 12. Twenty-five black sailors were charged with rioting and assaults, while not a single white crew member was charged. 

Marv, a US Navy JAG lawyer at the time, defended six of the black sailors at their special courts-martial trials. He started writing about the experience soon after, but between his career and starting a family, he could never give it the attention it deserved. But the events stuck with him, haunting him time and time again for nearly 50 years. 

After the military, Marv served as Assistant Attorney General for South Dakota before entering private practice in Rapid City. When he retired, he decided it was time to tell the Kitty Hawk riot story that he felt had not been told. He published his book, “Against All Tides: The Untold Story of the Kitty Hawk Race Riot”, last year, marking the 50th anniversary of the event.  

“I don’t usually get that angry, but at that time, I remember having a lot of anger over the racial injustices,” he said. “And once I started looking at all of the documents again and writing about what happened, I realized I was just as angry now. I just really wanted the story to get out.” 

The book includes 1,100 endnotes referring to initial sources of information, thanks to several boxes of documents Marv had kept. He is careful to tell the whole story, including the context and many factors that led to the happenings.

Since finishing his book, other Navy veterans have contacted him saying they didn’t know the extent of the story until reading his book. Many fellow Mines alumni have contacted him as well, saying they are glad to hear a fuller picture of the events that happened. 

Marv noted that, while he keeps in touch with just one friend from Northwestern University Law School, he has always felt a strong connection to South Dakota Mines and the friends he made there. He meets regularly with a group of Delta Sigma Phi alumni in the Denver area. And it’s not lost on him that his rigorous education at Mines is what got him through law school. 

“It was absolutely critical. I’m convinced that what I learned at Mines was a huge factor in how I did on the LSAT and in law school. I went through four years of high school and never took a book home, but at Mines I developed the discipline to study. And in law school, that’s all I did!”

Additionally, his engineering background became an important component in his law practice. He specialized in civil litigation, and mining and environmental law for 30 years, working day in and day out with engineers. He also brought several Mines professors – including E.R. Stensaas, Bill Coyle, and Duff Erickson – into court as expert witnesses. 

So while he didn’t end up working as an engineer, he certainly leaned on his education from Mines throughout his career.

"Regardless of what you end up doing with your life, you can’t do better than spending four years in a STEM program.” 

For more information about Marv or his book, visit marvtruhe.com.