Conv-Kent State Shootings

From: Mike Sullivan

Dated: June 7, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Hi all, I was anchoring TV and radio news in Saigon at the time of Kent State. We definitely covered it. I remember we had a Sgt. Gilmore who maintained the UPS, AP and Reuters Teletype machines at the time. We also received network source film flown in a few days later from ABC, CBS.
Incidentally, that radio newscast of mine on the net that was recorded up-country will, if I recall correctly, be 50 years ago June 27th!

Mike Sullivan, Saigon, 69-70.

Kent State and Shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

June 2020

From: Mike Sullivan

Dated: June 8, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Jim – thank you so much for the shot of Aaron!
Mike Sullivan

From: Ann Kelsey

Dated: June 8, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Great photos. Those teletype machines were definitely clunky, sort of like the mimeograph and ditto machines we had to use before photocopiers.
Ann

AFVN Group Conversations

From: Ann Kelsey

Dated: June 7, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Does anyone who was doing news in April-May 1970 recall how or if the Kent State shootings and the shootings at Augusta and Jackson State in the same time frame were reported on AFVN? My memory is that I got that news from the newspapers and news magazines (New York Times, Time, Newsweek) in the Cam Ranh library, but I can’t recall if there was any reporting on AFVN or the Stars and Stripes.
Thanks.
Ann

From: Jim Allingham

Dated: June 8, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Larry, Dug thru my old files and found this Kodak Instamatic shot of Aaron. Great guy; gentle giant. And, the 2 a.m. clandestine hamburger runs were the only thing that kept me alive during the all-night shift!
Ann, Here's a photo of our "Gomer Pyle" teletype machine on Hon Tre Island. Yea, that's a younger (much younger) me.
SP5 Jim Allingham

From: Ann Kelsey

Dated: June 7, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Jim,

I can relate to that. I was at UCLA getting my masters in library science in 68-69. The anti war activist groups there were the same as you describe at Kent State, perhaps worse. That activity and the animosity against veterans and soldiers had a lot to do with my signing up to go to Vietnam when the Army Library recruiters from Special Services came to the library school in the spring of 1969. So the news about Kent State came off the wire? Do you remember if there was also reporting on the incidents at Augusta and Jackson State?

Ann

Special Services Libraries, Cam Ranh Army, Nha Trang, Dong Ba Thin, 69-70

Jim Allingham at the teletype

in Hon Tre..

Aaron Gilmore at the teletype in Saigon.

From: Jim Allingham

Dated: June 8, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

You're welcome, Mike. Great to hear from you. Like a lot of the "talent" to come out of AFVN, you were one of the truly great radio voices.

From: Larry Green

Dated: June 8, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Mike, haven't seen Aaron Gilmore's name mentioned "forever." He always volunteered to the drive the van when we made 2:00 a.m. drives thru deserted Saigon streets to get burgers, fries and malts. Never was along when we got shot at, but that did happen once in awhile. But the chow was apparently worth the risk. At least it seemed that way then.

Larry Green 68-70

Note:

Am surprised to hear of runs outside our compound for food. I have always thought that our

Snack Bar was the only 24-hour-a-day place for food. Where did Gilmore go? Jim White

From: Jim Allingham

Dated: June 7, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Jim,

Ann, Regarding Augusta and Jackson State, I don't recall seeing a word about either. Just Kent State.
The old teletype machine (we called it "Gomer Pyle") that we had on Hon Tre Island was always dropping the signal from Saigon, so on many a day, we had to monitor the AFVN radio news out of Saigon and "steal" those stories to put together TV newscasts for 7 and 11 p.m. Again, I don't recall hearing anything about either from the radio feeds. But, that was 50 years ago, so I can't honestly say that it wasn't covered by AFVN. It just wasn't anything that was ever included in any of my TV newscasts.

From: Jim Allingham

Dated: June 7, 2020

Subject: Kent State and shootings at Augusta and Jackson State 1970

Hi Ann,
I was the TV News anchor at the Hon Tre Island Detachment and I read the wire copy that was sent to us via our lone teletype feed out of AFVN Saigon.
Ironically, when the story broke on the wire, I was wearing a Kent State T-shirt. I was a Kent State student, but I dropped out in my sophomore year to enlist in the Army. I was from Pittsburgh and when I enrolled at Kent in the fall of 1966, I quickly found an entirely different world (and political culture) than where I grew up in the shadow of big steel.
In addition to early antiwar activism on Greek Row, there were a whole host of other groups (Students for a Democratic Society...commonly called the SDS; there were the Black Panthers, which I found odd because the minority population at Kent was negligible; there as a faction of the Weather Underground; the American Communist Party was recruiting on campus; the Civil Rights Movement was gaining traction; and there were various other "rights" groups.
The campus was vastly overcrowded, with dorm study areas turned into makeshift rooms to accommodate the over-enrollment allowed by the state of Ohio in those days for state-funded universities.
It was not an environment that I adapted to, so I opted to serve my country, not join any organization advocating anarchy. It was a crazy, crazy time but what happened in 1970 was the culmination of years of student activism and unrest.
SP5 Jim Allingham AFVN News Saigon/Hon Tre Island 1969-1970