 A retired National Guard officer explains the Guard's point of view. By Rachel Dissell On April 30, 1970, President Nixon announced the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. Americans learned on national television that 150,000 soldiers would be drafted for the war -- this from a president elected on his promises to stop the Vietnam conflict. Just a day later, demonstrations broke out on college campuses across the nation. In the Midwest, word spread around Kent State University about a rally to be held at noon Monday, May 4, on the Commons. After a weekend of mob-chanting and destruction in downtown Kent, Ohio, Mayor Leroy Satrom asks that the Ohio National Guard be called in to maintain order. Former Ohio National Guard Lt. Col. Charles Fassinger stood silently an arm's length away from soldiers in C Company at 12:24 p.m. At some point during the 61 rounds of bullets fired down Blanket Hill and into Prentice Hall parking lot, Fassinger ordered a cease-fire. Twenty-eight guardsmen have acknowledged firing. Fassinger, who coordinated all efforts for the 107th Ohio National Guard Armored Cavalry on that day, says the Guard at that time was an extension of the Army -- ready to be active at any time.
Before noon, students gathered on the Commons for the anti-war rally which had been planned since Friday. A campus policeman riding in a Guard vehicle told students through a bullhorn that their assembly was illegal, that everyone was ordered to disperse. Some students in front of Taylor Hall and in the Prentice Hall parking lot charged the right flank of the Guard. They began throwing stones, some shouting, "Kill the pigs. Stick the pigs." Guardsmen reacted by firing tear gas. They marched toward the crowd. Each guardsman carried a loaded M-1 rifle. Twenty five men fired 55 shots from rifles, two fired shots from .45 caliber pistols, and one fired a single blast from a shotgun. Fassinger says there was no specific plan of operation outlining how to handle the events at Kent. "There was an overall plan to aid municipalities in times of civil disturbance," he says. The state was divided into quadrants, including provisions for campuses, but operation orders contained nothing specific to Kent State.
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"We were only equipped for basic combat," Fassinger says. "A uniform, a metal helmet and a gun. The campus authorities made a decision there would be no rallies. Had that decision not been made, the Guard would not have been there."
