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RECOLLECTIONS: May 4, 1970

By Ken Johnson

Three years after I'd finished my tour with the 1st infantry in 'Nam, the "crack" of that first bullet going by still brought the reaction: flat on the ground crawling towards the nearest cover, in this case, a Volkswagon. All I can remember is thinking about how I'd helped a grad student friend pull the motor out of one of those cars and how sure I was that those National Guard M-1 Garands could shoot through the best 3 VW's ever made.

As the shooting stopped, the students jumped up and started running around. I was probably the only non-wounded person still flat on the ground. I finally decided to get up (slowly) and have a look around. The Guard was moving over the hill back towards the Commons from that spot over a hundred meters away from which they'd fired. I didn't spot anybody down immediately in front of me.

Behind me, it was a different story. Directly to my rear, a couple of the bullets that passed over the VW hit two kids. One, a guy, had several people around him and seemed to be hit in the back. I went over towards the other, a young woman, and wished I hadn't. she was shot through the neck and was gushing blood. Her arms and legs were starting to twitch. The guy trying to help her asked me what he should do. I just kind of looked at him and shook my head without saying anything. Maybe somebody saw a survivor of a wound like that in 'Nam. I never did. It was only later that I learned the woman was Sandy Scheuer. The guy turned out to bee Bill Schroeder—he died of his wound too.

In a way it was strangely like a firefight. You know that only a very short time passed... it only seemed like it went on forever. The entire event which began down on the commons at noon ended in the shootings about twenty minutes later.

We'd gathered on the Commons to protest Nixon's insane invasion of Cambodia and the occupation on the Campus by the Ohio National Guard. Although the Guard was gathered across the Commons, they were stationary there until they sent out a jeep with a guy with a bullhorn to inform us that we were an "unlawful assembly" and should disperse immediately. At that point, a couple of rocks got thrown and the chant, "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR! WE DON'T WANT YOUR FUCKIN' WAR!" got going. The Guard then cut loose with a barrage of tear gas shells and canisters. We heaved as many black as we could, but the concentration of gas finally pushed us up and over Taylor Hill into the area of the Prentice Hall parking lot and the practice football field with the Guard moving up behind us.

I'd gotten badly gassed and sat down on a curb well away from the crowd trying to get my breath back while not vomiting all over the place. After a couple of minutes, I got back up and noticed that the Guard was now on the practice field and was heading back up toward Taylor Hall. I figured they were going to regroup with the larger body of Guard still in the Commons area or possibly those Guardsmen were int eh process of coming around behind us. I headed over towards a couple of people I knew to suggest that we head over towards tri-Towers (a dorm complex) to regroup and get more demonstrators.

As I drew even with the back of the VW which would end up being my cover, I glanced up at the Guard. Nobody was all that close to them as they stopped by the pagoda behind Taylor Hall.

The last thought I recall before I hit the ground was, "What the fuck are those yo-yo's pointing their rifles at?"

It was point and counterpoint. Nixon and his political and military misleaders sought to broaden the war into Cambodia to crush a patriotic people's righteous resistance. In another vicious outrage, the same gang tried it at Kent to smash domestic protest against his insanity.

History says he went 0 for 2.