Being in the Illinois National Guard from 1963 to 1971 (with a slight break so the unit could go to Vietnam), I was on the "giving end" of the bayonets. Fortunately, the only really active State duty I was on was fighting Mississippi River floods. We were called up by the Governor a couple of other times to stand-by in case we were needed for riot duty but after a week or so we were sent home without doing anything other than sleeping on very uncomfortable cots in a hot Armory building.

Don't get me started about Kent State, even though I was still (not through choice) still in Guard. Let's just say that I believe mistakes were made and let it go at that.

But I was privy to a lot of information that wasn't made public at the time. If you want to read it, the FBI files from that time are online and not all were redacted to fit J. Edgar's views.