# Four dead in Ohio. May 4th 1970

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 4, 2005, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455 "2005-05-04T22:42:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/41 "2005-05-08T18:32:25Z")

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> [@wolf\_meister](#):
>
> **Ranchoth**  
> You mentioned the Ohio National Gurad had just been called off from a trucker’s strike? As I said (and I remember reading this in Governor Rhodes’ obituary) he was never reluctant to call up the National Guard.

IIRC, the unit had also just been through extensive combat training and was supposed to be shipping out to 'Nam in the near future.

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**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/42 "2005-05-08T23:53:33Z")

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> [@wolf\_meister](#):
>
> **Ranchoth**  
> You mentioned the Ohio National Gurad had just been called off from a trucker’s strike? As I said (and I remember reading this in Governor Rhodes’ obituary) he was never reluctant to call up the National Guard.

Yeah, so they’d _just been pulled of days of riot duty._ These guys were probably exhausted, on edge, armed, and put in a situation where for all they knew they may or may not have had their lives, or the lives of the community, at risk.

I’m not a military man, but to me, it doesn’t seem so surprising that one of the guardsmen misheard an order, got hit by a rock, or just panicked, and that the other guardsmen just started shooting when they heard the shooting.

A little research tells me that less than half of the guardsmen opened fire, they fired about sixty rounds, and only managed to hit _13_ people in an open area. Doesn’t exactly seem like a cunning operation to put down the longhairs. Just a dumb accident, brought on, like any number of other tradgedys, by the concurrance of a bunch of different elements at just the wrong time.

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**Author:** ![wolf\_meister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf_meister/32/15202_2.png) [@wolf\_meister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolf_meister)\
**Post date:** [May 9, 2005, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/four-dead-in-ohio-may-4th-1970/302455/43 "2005-05-09T03:46:57Z")

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**Ranchoth**  
It seems you think I was blaming the Guard. See my posting #28.  
My remark was directed at Governor Rhodes and not the Guard.

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