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Guardsmen in Kent State Tragedy Received a 'Prepare to Fire' Command,
Newspaper Says
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Guardsmen-in-Kent-State/23881/
May 10, 2010
The Ohio National Guardsmen who fired on students and antiwar
protesters at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, were given an
order to "prepare to fire," according to two experts who analyzed a
40-year-old audio tape of the day's tragic events for The Plain
Dealer, a newspaper in Cleveland. Such a command could explain a
mystery in the case: Why did 28 Guardsmen pivot in unison, raise
their weapons, and fire 67 times? Several witnesses said at the time
that they heard something that sounded like an order to fire, but
most of the soldiers who acknowledged using their weapons later
testified that they acted spontaneously.
Doris Krause, the mother of one of the four students who died, said a
prepare-to-fire command "had to be," but wished "there was better
proof." William Gordon, author of an exhaustive 1995 book on the
shootings, Four Dead in Ohio, said the new analysis was potentially
"a real game-changer." "If the results can be verified," he told The
Plain Dealer, "it means the Guardsmen perjured themselves extensively
at the trials."
A former student who was one of nine people wounded in the shootings
said on Monday that he would seek a new investigation of the
incident, based on the new audio analysis.
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