43 Years Ago Today...4 Dead in O-Hi-O

• Footwedge

  RIP. That incident was partly responsible for LBJ's mass killings to stop.
  
  http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2013/05/04/may_4_1970_the_kent_state_university_shootings_told_through_pictures_photos.html
• rydawg5

  gov only protects
• ptown_trojans_1

  

  Protests were for Nixon's invasion of Cambodia.
  
  Also, during that time OSU had huge riots, while no deaths, shut down the campus. National Guardsmen literally cleared the Oval.
  Crazy time for a college student.
• believer

  

  Footwedge;1438342 wrote:RIP. That incident was partly responsible for LBJ's mass killings to stop.

  Ummmm....Nixon was POTUS. Governor Rhodes ordered the National Guard to many Ohio college campuses, including Kent State. The students were protesting Nixon's increased bombings in Cambodia.
  
  My ex-boss was a National Guardsman at Kent State during the shooting. He was reluctant to talk to me about it but he said that the media (I'm shocked) tried to make it appear as though the Guardsmen opened fire on the students without provocation. He said that a handful of protesters (many of them not even Kent State students) were spitting on the Guardsmen and hurling rocks & bottles, etc. for hours prior to the shootings. He said it was an extremely tense situation.
  
  It certainly doesn't justify the shooting and the shootings were, in my opinion, an unfortunate over-reaction by the National Guard during an unusually traumatic and shaky time in U.S. history. I'm certainly opposed to ANY Big Gubmint intrusion on our rights and this clearly went beyond reasonable force in my opinion.
  
  To this day no one really knows the entire truth of what actually caused the shootings. But let's remember that the protesters and the Guardsmen themselves were all very young and all about the same age at the time of the tragedy. Ironically my ex-boss was also a Kent State student at the time.
• superman

  I remember hearing former Athens County Commissioner Dean Kahler, who was shot at the riots and paralyzed, tell people that his injuries were Vietnam related.
• Belly35

  

  On this day I and my squad entered into Cambodia, we where on the fouth apc with NBC news reporting following us. We had been in Cambodia before but this was official. On this day dean kahler a child hood playmate was shot in kent state, on this day Ed grant my best friend brother and neighbor was on the hill at kent state as member on Ohio national guard. On this night our platoon was hit by nva in force, worst firefight, I lost some good men that night. The next three days I was cut off from the outside world. .. One child hood friend wounded at home, one best friend on the national guard hill, and my guys killed or wounded... This is what I remember about this day...
• Manhattan Buckeye

  ptown_trojans_1;1438347 wrote:Protests were for Nixon's invasion of Cambodia.
  
  Also, during that time OSU had huge riots, while no deaths, shut down the campus. National Guardsmen literally cleared the Oval.
  Crazy time for a college student.

  It was a crazy time in general. I wasn't around in that era but it seems like the U.S. in the 60's/early 70's was in flat out insane mode.
  
  What gets me the most is that Mary Ann Vecchio was a 14 year old runaway on a college campus and it didn't seem like that big of a deal. Its as if the WWII generation absolutely crapped the bed in raising their baby boomer kids. If our 14 year old god-daughter pulls a stunt remotely like that we'd move heaven and earth to slap some sense into her, which we wouldn't need to do because her father would take care of it.
• GOONx19

  

  My aunt was a student at Kent at the time. I've never talked to her about it, but I'd really like to sometime.
• LJ

  

  My uncle was a guardsman at the time. He launched tear gas at OSU. Said the absolute worst thing about the Kent State shooting is that they guys doing the shooting were kids too. They were shooting their peers.
• superman

  Belly35;1438415 wrote:On this day I and my squad entered into Cambodia, we where on the fouth apc with NBC news reporting following us. We had been in Cambodia before but this was official. On this day dean kahler a child hood playmate was shot in kent state, on this day Ed grant my best friend brother and neighbor was on the hill at kent state as member on Ohio national guard. On this night our platoon was hit by nva in force, worst firefight, I lost some good men that night. The next three days I was cut off from the outside world. .. One child hood friend wounded at home, one best friend on the national guard hill, and my guys killed or wounded... This is what I remember about this day...

  How do. you feel about Kahler framing it as a Vietnam related injury?
• Belly35

  

  superman;1438676 wrote:How do. you feel about Kahler framing it as a Vietnam related injury?

  I haven’t talked to Dean in over 30 years. I personally could careless what or how he justified what happen and even less about what he claims. People do what they have to do to move forward from stuff like this, some never do other use it as opportunity. Dean has done well for himself and I’m glad for that. What Dean should look for now is the truth. Like many before him the emotion of the time and political demeanor dictated what many believed to be truth and based their opinions on that. What group and its link was really responsible for what happen that day. We all know the end result but who, what and why and the link to what organization was the beginning … there is where the problem began and the first steps to a violent day started. Dean political views was shaped on the event of May 4[SUP]th[/SUP] but maybe he should look at what was going on 24 hour earlier and by who. The trigger was pulled hours before the first bullet was fired. Don’t blame those at the end for those who began the wrong.
• Cleveland Buck

  

  The liberals that cried for the victims back then would now spit on their graves for daring to defy their government masters.
• Tiernan

  believer;1438361 wrote:To this day no one really knows the entire truth of what actually caused the shootings... .

  uhhh yeah we do...the entire truth of what caused those shootings is a handful of Natl Guardsmen pulled the triggers on their rifles. Case closed
• Belly35

  

  Tiernan;1438809 wrote:uhhh yeah we do...the entire truth of what caused those shootings is a handful of Natl Guardsmen pulled the triggers on their rifles. Case closed

  That is the end result, what happen 24 hours before is the real shooter
• QuakerOats

  8 months ago, 4 dead in B-e-n-g-h-a-z-i ............... government lies and coverups since.
  
  
  
  What have we learned?
  
  
  
  Change we can believe in ...
• ts1227

  

  Cleveland Buck and QuakerOats are why this forum is unreadable. Every topic doesn't have to relate back to your dumbass fringe agenda
• cruiser_96

  

  I blame George Bush.
• believer

  

  Belly35;1438825 wrote:That is the end result, what happen 24 hours before is the real shooter

  winner
• Footwedge

  Tiernan;1438809 wrote:uhhh yeah we do...the entire truth of what caused those shootings is a handful of Natl Guardsmen pulled the triggers on their rifles. Case closed

  Now, now, now....don't go blaming the peace makers.
• believer

  

  Footwedge;1439255 wrote:Now, now, now....don't go blaming the peace makers.

  Or those who know the difference between LBJ and Nixon.
• HitsRus

  

  This is kind of like what White House spokesman Jay Carney said a couple of days ago..."let's be clear...Benghazi was a long time ago..."
• Tiernan

  Belly35;1438825 wrote:That is the end result, what happen 24 hours before is the real shooter

  Belly - I usually mostly agree with your typical no-nonsence / common sense approach to issues. And the story you provided about where three former HS classmates were that day 43 yrs ago was fascinating (especially to another old guy who while only a Fr in HS at the time ...was very caught up in the news of the day back then). But there was no excuse or plausible reason for the Natl Guardsmen to be packing live ammo that day. Knock-downs or water cannons would have sufficed no matter how many rocks or bottles the students were or were not throwing. The reason those 4 kids are dead is simple...America let them down that day by loading guns meant for a foreign foe and shot her own citizens. It had been 105 yrs, since 1865 to be exact when the last time Americans shot other Americans over ideological differences. May 4 1970 is a sad sad day in American history and I hope the lessons learned stay with us for way longer than another 100 yrs.
• FatHobbit

  

  Tiernan;1439496 wrote:I hope the lessons learned stay with us for way longer than another 100 yrs.

  Is the lesson that we learned to not listen to people who question the government, because government knows what's best for us?
• Tiernan

  FatHobbit;1439502 wrote:Is the lesson that we learned to not listen to people who question the government, because government knows what's best for us?

  No
  
  
  ...but your too young & dumb to know why its No.
• FatHobbit

  

  Tiernan;1439506 wrote:No
  
  
  ...but your too young & dumb to know why its No.

  Enlighten me please.