"People question our motives, but the Guard didn't want to be there, either," Fassinger says. "There weren't good guys or bad guys -- it was just protecting property."

But he vehemently disagrees with the commonly held idea that the guardsmen who fired on May 4 were "green" or "a bunch of scared kids."

"Those were not young, green kids," he says. "They all had several years of experience. The average age in Vietnam was around 20. These guys averaged at least 23."

He contends that the guardsmen had plenty of adequate training and had been in crowd control situations before, yet they had a right to be in fear.

"They had every right to feel that way," he says. "If you were there, you could see the change from a crowd to a mob. They felt their lives were in danger - you just can't train that feeling out."

Fassinger, whose wife and daughter both graduated from Kent State, says he doesn't like to use the word "justified" to refer to the shootings, but he says it is wrong to take the right away from the soldiers to be afraid.

"I don't know how you can train people any better to go out and stand in front of a mob," he says. "It is not something you can translate from a classroom."

On the morning of May 4, Allison Krause was reported to have placed flowers in Guardsman Byers' gun, indicating a peaceful atmosphere among students and the Guard. (Kent State Archives)

If a similar incident were to occur, the National Guard probably wouldn't be called to campus because opinions in the United States have changed so drastically.

"If it came to the point where students wanted to take over a building now, we would probably let them and sit around outside and wait for them to get done," Fassinger says.

He says he thinks the incident also helped the government reconsider the way the way the Guard handles riots.

"What nobody ever followed up on was the changes that we made," he says. "Now there is protective gear, such as face shields and batons, instead of guns," he says.

Fassinger says he can understand the feelings of the people involved about the occurrences of that day and afterward. "I just hope they can begin to finally understand the Guard and their feelings."

Although other National Guard members declined to comment, families of those involved and survivors of the incident say they still have hope that one day National Guard members will speak openly about the incident.