29 Story: Kent State OH – May,1970 Photos: 3 Marquees, Ocean City/Cleveland Sheraton Song: “Dust in the Wind”.
The Ohio Army National Guard used Brandywine Ski for training exercises during the Viet Nam war. The first picture (below) shows how wide the old bridge was which goes over the Brandywine creek between the lodge, and the ski slopes. The others show that the National Guard built the new bridge a lot wider.
The next time that I saw the National Guard was in the Spring of 1970 while I was attending my sophomore year at Kent State. It was Friday, May 1st, and President Nixon just made the announcement that he was expanding the Viet Nam War into Cambodia. As I’m walking to class, a large group of people are yelling, “Hell, no, we won’t go!”, and I heard that there would be another rally planned for the following Monday, May 4th. I had finally started enjoying going to school, and my classes included Psychology, Psychological Statistics, Health Ed., Geology, Fencing, English Writing, and Practical Logic. Little did I know that soon my classes would all come to an end, and four of my fellow students would be shot dead by the National Guard. Nixon’s Viet Nam announcement stirred up more than just controversy.
That evening a group of obvious radical students, and transients who were in the bars in downtown Kent unbeknownst to me, threw beer bottles through bar or store windows which set off alarms, then before police responded, a bonfire was set off in the street. Partying students hopping from bar to bar during their routine downtown weekend ritual all flocked out to see what was going on, and presumably because of the vandalism and street fire, the bars were all closed down.
The next day, Saturday, I was playing softball on the back edge of campus with some guys from the Tri-Towers dorm, and saw what looked like tents being pitched up in the distance, but I thought that it was some kind of flea market, or carnival setting up, and I dismissed it entirely. However, by the time we had finished our game, I noticed that the tents were so numerous that they were overflowing from out of the woods, and filling the hills in long lines as I walked back toward the dorm. Even after I realized that they were actually army tents, I still thought that nothing was that unordinary, figuring that the National Guardsmen were just practicing their normal routine weekend exercises.
That same evening, I walked to the student union, and then down to the corner of campus trying to decide whether or not I wanted to walk all of the way downtown to JB’s bar on Water Street where I often went on Saturday nights, but three students who were all out of breath came running across the street, and warned me not to go that way, because they were arresting everyone! So, I turned back around after crossing Lincoln and Main Street, and was walking on the front corner of campus where it’s all soft grass when I saw something astonishing happening…
Two small army jeeps came driving down the middle of Lincoln Street. One turned right onto Main Street, and the other parked right in the middle of the intersection followed by the sound of hundreds of boots stomping in the street marching down from the top of Lincoln Street. Soldiers appeared in marching formation as people started pouring out of everywhere to witness this phenomenon. Almost instantly there were thousands watching this military spectacle. The soldiers kept marching in, and the people kept pouring out of everywhere. The soldiers parked themselves on Lincoln and Main which are the two streets making up the corner of campus, as someone began announcing over loud speakers, “Citizens, go back into your homes, and all students go back to your dorms.” Then, the soldiers quickly broke formation, and began herding students away from the “V” of the two streets, and back toward campus. Many of them ordered the direction of the students, forcing them away from the soft grass bordering the corner of the campus, and started arresting anyone attempting to break, and walk toward the direction of downtown, or anywhere other than the direction the soldiers demanded. As I walked with the flow toward my dorm, I heard somebody say something about Martial Law, and mention that there was a curfew which will be in effect at 7PM. I wasn’t sure what martial law actually meant, especially to college students living on a college campus in a dormitory, but I wasn’t taking any chances, so continued heading toward my dorm.
I kept hearing orders announced over loudspeakers to immediately return to your homes, and dorms. I saw that the soldiers began walking freely among students, and they seemed to be on the lookout for anyone, or anything, out of the ordinary, and were obviously making sure that the students were all moving accordingly. I continued walking with the flow of students, and heard that anyone would be arrested if they were not inside by 7PM. So, I asked a soldier who had been walking right next to me what time he had, and when he didn’t respond, I asked how many more minutes we had left. Unfortunately, I wasn’t conscious of my own long hair because just about everybody had long hair, and I simply didn’t realize that long hair to this particular soldier probably meant that I was either a radical, or a protester. Instead of answering me, the guardsman barked out loudly, “Move on”, so I started walking even faster. But, as I hurriedly walked on, he snuck up from behind, and jabbed me in the side of my lower back right in the kidney with what I later learned was a 25,000 volt electric billy club. I fell in pain instantly, and helplessly to my knees. I was promptly picked up, dragged, and and tossed into one of the many paddy wagons crowded with other students who had been herded, and headed off to jail. While in a holding cell which was becoming as crowded as the paddy wagon, I remember thinking that they were trying to weed out anyone who wasn’t a student. After I was processed as a student, I was released surprisingly fast, and went straight back to my dorm room, and fell asleep, physically exhausted, almost immediately.