[Packo]

happened, I can honestly say that I didn't give much of a sheet. My concerns were with the Sky Troopers fighting in Cambodia. Since that time I have read up some, not a lot, on the incident.

Most people are unaware that the Guardsmen had been in Cleveland fighting with Teamsters, who are a bunch tougher than hippies, for quite a while. I forget exactly how long they had been up there but at least a month seems to ring a bell. Once the hippies burned down the ROTC building the Governor had no choice but to bring them in. Federal property had been destroyed. The Guardsmen were already worn to a frazil before they got there. It stands to reason that with the amount of firepower each Guardman had with his M-1 and the amount of them that fired, surely had the majority of them actually aimed at the rioters, many more would have been killed. Even weekend warriors couldn't miss that many people in a crowd at that range. I believe the people killed and wounded in the parking lots were from the guys who fired over their heads intending to miss and not knowing ballistics and trajectory very well. Also agree that once someone shot, panic set in as many of us can relate to. (kinda like the garbage dump story Lt told)

Does any of this mean to be an excuse? No, but I just thank God I wasn't one of the Guardsmen at that time or more than 4 would be dead. I wasn't in any mood to see "the protected" waving NVA flags in my face. (I would have never fired first, but who knows once the firing began.) What happened there would not have happened had the hippies not burned down the ROTC building. They are EQUALLY culpable in the deaths of the 4 students and the wounding of the others. Had it just been a peaceful protest, like our Constitution guarentees, history would be different. I curse the vandals more than the Guard.

Packo