Kent State - Video I hadn't seen

[MisterVeritis]

Valid point. My point was that they shouldn't have been there.

A building had been burned down by a mob. It was appropriate to have the national guard deployed.

[jet57]

I thought I had seen ALL the footage out there from Kent State...until now. Reminded me of the Zapruder video of JFK. This was a powerful video, even without dialogue. Armed troops on a college campus. Because of a protest.

Excellent find. It is VERY reminiscent. Have you seen Ken Burns' Vietnam? That event is in it.

What I remember so vividly is that during the 1988(?) presidential campaign was that Dan Quail was in the guard that day and was there. I wonder what he thinks today about all that.

I had heard that there were some young ladies killed as well but had never seen any footage of it; it was the Boston Massacre.

What drew you to the find, and why post it?

[Cletus]

A building had been burned down by a mob. It was appropriate to have the national guard deployed.

Is the National Guard normally deployed in cases of arson?

[DGUtley]

Excellent find. It is VERY reminiscent. Have you seen Ken Burns' Vietnam? That event is in it. What I remember so vividly is that during the 1988(?) presidential campaign was that Dan Quail was in the guard that day and was there. I wonder what he thinks today about all that. I had heard that there were some young ladies killed as well but had never seen any footage of it; it was the Boston Massacre. What drew you to the find, and why post it?

I have seen Ken Burns' Vietnam. I watched a documentary once and one of the 60's leaders stated that Kent State killed the anti-war movement.

Dan Quayle was not at Kent State. Kent State is in Ohio. Dan Quayle was in the Indiana National Guard. This unit was Companies A and C, 1/145th Infantry and Troop G of the 2/107th Armored Cavalry, Ohio National Guard (ARNG). This regiment is based in Stow, Ohio - which is a stone's throw from Kent State. This regiment has a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/145th_Armored_Regiment The guardsmen in question were coming off of the teamsters strike, which had gotten pretty edgy. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/21/a...uardsmens.html They were called out in response to the spring Teamsters union strike and—having been activated


— they were transferred to Kent State. The call to the Teamsters strike came on
Wednesday, April 29, with the battalion given responsibility for an
area immediately west of Akron, including Route U.S. 21, where a
number of truck terminals— operating in defiance of the Teamsters—were
located. The 107th Armored Cavalry was assigned to similar duty in the
city of Akron. Men in both units had heard of violence surrounding the
Teamsters strike: snipers shooting at truck drivers, windshields smashed
by rocks dropped from overpasses. The men of the 145th went in—as cus
tomarily—with weapons loaded with live ammunition. They had been
involved in four or five ghetto riots in Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown
in the last two years and there had never been a suggestion that they
should carry empty.


This time, their work went ahead quietly and effectively. They patrolled the highways,
guarded the overpasses and escorted between 300 and 400 trucks from
their terminals to the superhighway. They sought out and neutralized the
strong points, identifying two bars where striking teamsters hung about
and from which they poured out to heave every thing from invective to
rocks whenever trucks moved out of nearby terminals. The National Guard
simply set up squads to meet the teamsters as they rushed out. “They'd
pull up short, stare at us for a while, and then go back into the bar
for another drink,” a Guardsman.

I started at Kent State in the fall of 1980. My freshman year was the first year since the shootings that Kent had a full freshman class. Kent State was still struggling to come to terms with the shootings. We were all taught, as freshman, about the shootings, took a semester long class on it, learned about the 4 deceased students and the 9 injured. Met some of the injured as they spoke in our classes. It was a very personal presentation. They really personalized the tragedy for us. It was very emotional to think that our government shot students for protesting on campus. They did not rush the guardsman - that's never been stated in any of the testimony.

It still remains very personal today. To think of those young students bleeding on the ground, the parking lot, sidewalks etc. Someone from my college days sent it to me.

[Peter1469]

When I was in the Louisiana Army National Guard we did a lot of riot control training. We used a riot control line with guys in civilian cloths who would canvas the crowd looking for the leaders of the violence. Those guys would be sniper targets.

[jet57]

I have seen Ken Burns' Vietnam. I watched a documentary once and one of the 60's leaders stated that Kent State killed the anti-war movement.

Dan Quayle was not at Kent State. Kent State is in Ohio. Dan Quayle was in the Indiana National Guard. This unit was Companies A and C, 1/145th Infantry and Troop G of the 2/107th Armored Cavalry, Ohio National Guard (ARNG). This regiment is based in Stow, Ohio - which is a stone's throw from Kent State. This regiment has a long history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/145th_Armored_Regiment The guardsmen in question were coming off of the teamsters strike, which had gotten pretty edgy. https://www.nytimes.com/1970/06/21/a...uardsmens.html They were called out in response to the spring Teamsters union strike and—having been activated


— they were transferred to Kent State. The call to the Teamsters strike came on
Wednesday, April 29, with the battalion given responsibility for an
area immediately west of Akron, including Route U.S. 21, where a
number of truck terminals— operating in defiance of the Teamsters—were
located. The 107th Armored Cavalry was assigned to similar duty in the
city of Akron. Men in both units had heard of violence surrounding the
Teamsters strike: snipers shooting at truck drivers, windshields smashed
by rocks dropped from overpasses. The men of the 145th went in—as cus
tomarily—with weapons loaded with live ammunition. They had been
involved in four or five ghetto riots in Akron, Cleveland and Youngstown
in the last two years and there had never been a suggestion that they
should carry empty.


This time, their work went ahead quietly and effectively. They patrolled the highways,
guarded the overpasses and escorted between 300 and 400 trucks from
their terminals to the superhighway. They sought out and neutralized the
strong points, identifying two bars where striking teamsters hung about
and from which they poured out to heave every thing from invective to
rocks whenever trucks moved out of nearby terminals. The National Guard
simply set up squads to meet the teamsters as they rushed out. “They'd
pull up short, stare at us for a while, and then go back into the bar
for another drink,” a Guardsman.

I started at Kent State in the fall of 1980. My freshman year was the first year since the shootings that Kent had a full freshman class. Kent State was still struggling to come to terms with the shootings. We were all taught, as freshman, about the shootings, took a semester long class on it, learned about the 4 deceased students and the 9 injured. Met some of the injured as they spoke in our classes. It was a very personal presentation. They really personalized the tragedy for us. It was very emotional to think that our government shot students for protesting on campus. They did not rush the guardsman - that's never been stated in any of the testimony.

It still remains very personal today. To think of those young students bleeding on the ground, the parking lot, sidewalks etc. Someone from my college days sent it to me.

Yeah, I seem to remember however some ruckus about Quayle and the NG during the campaign with Bush. I'm a bit older than you, maybe five years so my memory of those days is still pretty clear. "Four Dead In Ohio"...

The Teamsters btw won that strike and got 2/3s more than the offer. Teamsters don't want to have to fight anybody and the "guard leading trucks" was because of guys "following struck freight" and picketing where ever the truck stopped. (not to change the subject; just information).

I wonder if Kent State really did end the anti war movement though? The decision to get out of Vietnam had all but been made by then and it was heading into negotiations. The anti war movement however did win in the end and since then US leadership has learned so little, and we Americans have learned so much; we're seeing that today.

[Admiral Ackbar]

I have respect for Kent State. I wanted my kids to take a shot at applying there, but they never pulled the trigger on it.

[DGUtley]

I have respect for Kent State. I wanted my kids to take a shot at applying there, but they never pulled the trigger on it.

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[MisterVeritis]

Is the National Guard normally deployed in cases of arson?

When the arsonists are hundreds strong and it is a government building it is appropriate.

[carolina73]

The problem is that in the crowd of 1000 you also had a small number that were there to create problems. They are like the antiFa of today that created the Charlottesville incident. Confrontation in a crowd created someone to panic. That was not 1000 Kent State Students. There were those that came in to create problems.