OT - Remembering This Day 39 Years Ago

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:21 am

I got the first phone call at eight-thirty this morning. It was from our shortstop Terry Price. Terry was my roommate on road trips during the college baseball season of 1970. I knew I would receive several more phone calls throughout the day.

That season was my last hurrah. I was good enough to play in college. I was not good enough to make a living at it. Going pro was not an option. And besides, in a short two months I was headed for Ft. Sill Oklahoma to begin my new career as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. The only baseball I would be playing from that point on would be pick up games in South East Asia if I was lucky.

We arrived on the campus of Kent State University around nine o'clock the Friday evening of May 3rd. We had a midnight curfew and bed check. That midnight curfew was quickly rescinded when the team bus we were on had problems getting to the hotel. There were kids everywhere in the streets. There were bonfires and our bus was pelted with beer bottles. Now we have been though some ridicule before arriving on college campuses on the team bus. But nothing like this. Usually it would just be the taunts and jeers that we were going to get our butts kicked by the opposing university home team. This was far from the behavior normal to a good rivalry. This was scary. We couldn't understand why we were the targets of this. After all, it was just a baseball game.

When we heard the shouts about "make love not war" we realized how dumb we were. This was not about us at all. This was about the war in Viet Nam and had nothing to do with baseball. We were instructed to get down on the floor and stay away from the bus windows. In retrospect I think that made the terror of the moment more intense. We could only hear the sound of the bus being pelted with god knows what; we could see nothing in the darkness inside that bus. After what seemed like an eternity the sound of bottles hitting the sides of the bus subsided and the bus moved at a more sustained and faster pace. We reached the hotel, gathered in the lobby and were instructed to go to our assigned rooms and stay there. A coach would be around within the next half hour to insure that everyone was locked up and safe within the rooms.

After breakfast on Saturday morning we again boarded the bus. This time we were in uniform. We headed off to the baseball facility on the University grounds. Everyone on the bus was stunned to see the results of the prior night. The streets were a mess. But what shook us the most were the barricades across the streets and the uniformed soldiers manning these barricades. I quickly realized by the sleeve patches that these were members of the Ohio National Guard and not regular army.

At the first barricade our head coach got off the bus and talked to one of the guardsmen. He came back on the bus, talked quietly to the driver and sat down. The driver turned the bus around and we headed off in the direction of I-71 and the road south to Cincinnati. Coach walked halfway back the aisle of the bus and informed all of us that we were going home. We would forfeit the game. "No baseball game is worth getting killed over." he informed us and I couldn't have agreed with him more.

When we got off the bus on our campus and went into the training facility to change out of our uniforms and back into regular clothes we were told what happened. Facts were sketchy but we were told the guardsman had fired on the students and some were wounded. We were also told reports of some students being killed. Surely we thought this could not have happened. No one would shoot the students. Not in our country. This must be a mistake.

The events that happened that Saturday at Kent State shook my very beliefs to the core. College kids had died protesting a war that I assumed I would soon be involved with in a scant few months. I made the choice to enter the army two years earlier. I knew I would lose my 2S deferment the day I graduated. I just assumed it would be better to go into the army as an officer rather then be drafted as a private. Now I was really questioning my decision.

It seems like an eternity ago. And maybe it was. But the phone calls from teammates will come and we will talk about what happened to us on this very day thirty-nine years ago. We will talk about how afraid we were on that bus. And we will talk about how that day changed all of our lives.

I was never the same person after that Friday and Saturday. I really think those two days were the days I left my youth behind and embarked on my life as an adult. A far away war had brought death to a college campus.

"A baseball game is not worth getting killed over."

I knew I was headed into that war.

And I wondered if it was worth getting killed over.

Canabow · Post by **Canabow** » Mon May 04, 2009 10:34 am

Thanks for sharing that story.

lscha · Post by **lscha** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:03 am

Thanks for reminding us. That was an awful day. I was living near there at the time.

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:37 am

Sounds of the times:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AvrZCYvVQI

huntone · Post by **huntone** » Mon May 04, 2009 11:46 am

Mike P

I am 57 years old and remember and will never forget that day and those times. However, I know you were closer to that tragedy than I was. I feel your thoughts and I understand. Some of us were on the fence about that war. I was confused as my father was a Marine World War two veteran, but friends and others were against it. I would just do as I was told when and if my time came.

I was living in Memphis, intercity, when Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. I remember all the violence. We had riots, snipers, bombs, and people were killed. You couldn't buy gasoline after a certain time and there was a curfew.

Yes, those were the times and I feel fortunate to have lived during them. I remember the friends that I had and those that I lost. I hope you have peace with the Kent State tragedy. Thank you for sharing this and for serving our country.

Dale

mikej · Post by **mikej** » Mon May 04, 2009 12:06 pm

wow mike what an experience that must have been

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Mon May 04, 2009 12:12 pm

Pics of the times:

mikej · Post by **mikej** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:03 pm

what was the cause of this protest?

huntone · Post by **huntone** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:07 pm

The American invasion of Cambodia

awshucks · Post by **awshucks** » Mon May 04, 2009 1:49 pm

"Hell no, I won't go" or "Hell no, I gotta go" were the choices.

I too, remember it well. I had 940 hours in a tool and die apprenticeship when I got my draft notice. I needed 1000 for a deferment.

Hell of a decision for a 19 yr old farm kid, and I'd be less than totally honest if I didn't admit to briefly considering going to Canada.

Chose the USN instead, 4 yrs vs 2 yrs in the Army. Might of had to salute MikeP, lol.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Mon May 04, 2009 3:46 pm

awshucks wrote:Chose the USN instead, 4 yrs vs 2 yrs in the Army. Might of had to salute MikeP, lol.

Wise choice shucks, you guys really had good grub compared to the junk we were eating.

And I was not a stickler for proper army protocol. As long as you didn't give me the finger you were fine in my book.

And I would have been proud to have you under my command Dan.

Now Grizz, that would be another story!

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Mon May 04, 2009 3:52 pm

Mike P wrote:
awshucks wrote:Chose the USN instead, 4 yrs vs 2 yrs in the Army. Might of had to salute MikeP, lol.
And I would have been proud to have you under my command Dan. Now Grizz, that would be another story!

awshucks · Post by **awshucks** » Mon May 04, 2009 4:47 pm

And I would have been proud to have you under my command Dan.

Now Grizz, that would be another story!

Thanks Mike, gonna let this dog sleep out of respect for those that didn't fare as well as us, but in closing, I can't help but think you've a lot of interesting stories we'll never read.

Thanks to all for their service, we all got a raw deal in that sh*t hole.

R.J. · Post by **R.J.** » Mon May 04, 2009 6:22 pm

Wow ... I remember reading about it ... what a price to pay ~

hetichunter · Post by **hetichunter** » Mon May 04, 2009 7:39 pm

I tend to just kind of lurk here and read and learn. One thing I have learned is to check to see if you have posted a story. You should write a book about your life. I don't know if you really know just how awesome are the things that you have done and experienced. If you write a book I am buying it!