This may interest you. The '72 RNC and DNC were both held in Miami. Nixon was determined to prevent any disruptions--like the riots at the 1968 Chicago DNC--so he called in my battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment and a battalion from the 82nd Airborne.
We flew down on C-141s for the DNC in July and staged in a tent city between runways at Homestead AFB, where we were treated daily to F4 touch and goes. We were issued visors that attached to our helmets and practiced riot/crowd control drills on the tarmac every day. One day the Marines would be the "hippy rioters", the next day the 82nd troopers would play the role. (It was more fun being the hippies).
In the evening there were boxing matches and movies.
The next month both battalions returned for the RNC. Drill was the same, movies and boxing matches in the evening and six-mile runs in the mornings. At the termination of the RNC, President Nixon came out to greet us and shake hands and as he boarded AF-1, he turned at the top of the steps and gave us his customary double victory sign.
The only drawback to the deployment was that there was no pay-off. After all that drill, none of us got to jab hippies with our bayonets.
Linear Mode
