In Memory of Those Killed and Wounded at Kent State University on May 4, 1970

Thirty-eight years ago today Ohio National Guard fired on Kent State University students protesting Nixon’s decision to invade Cambodia as part of the U.S. Vietnam War campaign – four students were killed and nine others wounded.

Here’s the first part of that chronology as detailed in William A. Gordon's book “Four Dead in Ohio: Was There a Conspiracy at Kent State?”

• April 30 President Nixon announces the invasion of Cambodia, triggering massive protests on many of the nation's campuses.

• May 2 Ohio National Guardsmen are sent to Kent State after the University's Army R.O.T.C. building is burned down.

• May 3 Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes personally appears on campus and promises to use "every force possible" to maintain order. Rhodes denounces the protesters as worse than brownshirts and vows to keep the Guard in Kent "until we get rid of them."

• May 4 Four students are killed and nine others are wounded when a contingent of Guardsmen suddenly opens fire during a noontime demonstration.

The four students killed were Allison Krause, Jeffrey Glen Miller, Sandy Lee Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder (the later two passerbys and not protesters).

The nine others wounded were Thomas Mark Grace, Joseph Lewis Jr., John R. Cleary, Alan Canfora, Dean Kahler (permanently paralyzed from the chest down), Douglas Wrentmore, James Dennis Russell, Robert Stamps, and Donald Scott MacKenzie.

MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL opens on May 4, 1970, as four newly married women and their officer husbands approach Ft. Knox, Kentucky. It is against this background of national divisiveness over the Vietnam War that these army officers will begin their military service.

Their orders to report to active duty include this one sentence in the special instructions section: “Ultimate assignment to a short tour area.” Translation: Vietnam.

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Mrs. Lieutenant Then (1970) and Now (2008)

I read Tanya Biank’s column “Rank, Wives and Friendship: Can They Mix?” on Milspouse.com with appreciation for how things have changed in 38 years.

(FYI – Biank is the author of the non-fiction book ARMY WIVES: THE UNWRITTEN CODE OF MILITARY MARRIAGE. The hugely popular Lifetime television series “Army Wives” is based on this book.)

Biank reported, in their own words, the wives of officers and the wives of enlisted men describing forming close friendships among themselves.

In 1970, when I was a Mrs. Lieutenant, we wives of officers wouldn’t have considered being friends with the wives of enlisted men. In those days we understood that it was a class (or maybe caste) system, and we were at the bottom rung of the elite.

I clearly remember that, for our graduation luncheon as wives of the officers attending Armor Officers Basic training, we had to serve sherry. This was so even though none of us AOB wives liked the drink. But the post’s commanding general’s wife liked sherry.

In my book MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL, the rank of husbands plays an important role for one newly married lieutenant’s wife. Donna Lautenberg is a Puerto Rican who has grown up in an enlisted man’s family. Suddenly she finds herself married to an Anglo and an officer.

Donna arrives at Ft. Knox, Kentucky, on May 4, 1970 -- the day that the Ohio National Guard shot and killed four Kent State University Vietnam War protesters. And over the next few weeks Donna learns it is not always easy to adjust to new expectations.

In connection with Tanya Biank’s column, today we can hope that a new army officer’s wife who grew up in an enlisted man’s family would not find it as difficult to adjust to her changed position. This optimism appears to be thanks to the lowering of many of the social barriers between the wives of enlisted men and the wives of officers. Another victory for sisterhood!

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army wives, officers wives, officers wife, virtual book tour, Vietnam War, Mrs. Lieutenant, Iraq War, enlisted men's wives, Ft. Knox, Kent State Shootings