14-021 M14 Picture of the Day D.C. Riots 1968

[Mark in Rochester]

Five days of race riots erupted in Washington, D.C. following the April 4, 1968 assassination of Civil Rights Movement-leader Martin Luther King, Jr. A wave of civil disorder affected at least 110 U.S. cities; Washington, along with Chicago and Baltimore, were among the most affected.

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[13Echo]

My battalion, 3/30FA, from Ft. Sill was flown to DC for riot duty. It was an experience.

Jerry Liles

[Skip]

I was with the 82nd Airborne and spent 3 weeks there guarding the Heckingers Lumber yard. 5 rounds of 5.56 ball in my pocket, magazine in the ammo pouch and walked sling arms. Always had to account for 5 rounds during change of guard.

[Bob Seijas]

After the LA riots in 1965, most guard units began to train for them. My Bn formed a special Riot Platoon and I was put in charge of it. Lots of training, including "The Berlin Shuffle" and a lot of gas. My enlistment was up in 1967 and I got out. About three weeks after I left, the Newark riots broke out and they closed the city. I went to work anyway, took my motorcycle and entered through the Italian section (no trouble there at all, guys with guns on street corners). There were two people in the office, me and a secretary who lived a block away. The New York head shed was frantic, called about every 15 minutes to ask if the office was OK.
I looked out our 7th floor window and saw several Deuce-and-a-halfs pull up and discharge MY PLATOON! I wanted to run out there, borrow a uniform, and take over! It was not to be, of course, and I watched them march off towards the smoke with bayonets fixed. The stories that came out of it were amazing. The NJ Guard fired 55,000 rounds of ammo and stopped the riot dead in two days. The death toll was reported as 23 but it was WAY higher than that, a lot of bodies were thrown in the river and just washed away. The NJ State Police went crazy -- they were officially in charge, and the Guard went along "as security." In one case they got a call of a guy with a gun in a bar... two Staties responded and a jeep of four Guardsmen went with them. The bar was on a corner with a door on each street... a Trooper with a shotgun went in each door, the Guard stood outside. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM, the Troopers came out and drove away. Nobody went in to see what had happened.
In another case, a guard platoon was mustering on a street, the CO was forming them up. PING, a .22 round ricocheted off the road near him... he turned toward a 10-story brick apartment building and saw an open window. "Put a round through that window!" he ordered... 40 guys opened up with M1s, the front of the apartment nearly exploded as they all emptied a clip. No more shots came from there. And I missed it all.

[RT Ellis]

After I was drafted I was sent to Military Police AIT where we spent allot of training time practicing riot control techniques, including formations and advancing in various formations with large batons (much larger than ordinary MP Clubs). The MP company at Fort Ord was restricted to the company area and issued riot control equipment because Caesar Chavez was leading a demonstration over the Army buying lettuce from growers that didn't use union labor... BFD.

After active duty I transferred from the inactive reserve to the National Guard and after a year of training away from my unit, which was reorganized during the year, I reported to a combat arms unit where we spent entirely too much time in training for civil disorder. I thought I had enough of that in MPAIT, but it was all for nothing...never had to deal with any kind of civil disturbance. Every unit was issued these same large batons I had trained with at the MP school, and face shields with clamps that fit over the regular helmets. All this training and equipment went away by the mid 70s.

I was assigned to the S-4 of the squadron and the captain I worked for told stories of his participation as an EM in policing the Watts Riots in 1965. He said they were advancing down a street in line formation when a sniper fired at them. He recalled that the section leader was carrying a bag of magazines and calmly handed them out, the building the sniper fire came from was liberally engaged with 7.62mm bullets and the sniper fire stopped.

He also talked about a road block that was guarded with an MG mounted on a 1/4 ton. A civilian car approached and failed to stop at the check point, kept driving through and the young gunner on the MG fired the entire belt into the car and all the occupants. Neither the occupants nor the car survived.

I was employed with local law enforcement and after the acquittal of the LAPD officers in the Rodney King case and the civil disorder that followed I was involved with more riot control training that included rescuing people from rioters. We practiced that for awhile but never had to use it.

I witnessed a sit down riot of sorts in the correctional facility (stockade) at Ft Ord and I can relate that people can get real ugly in a group when they get wound up. I'm glad I never had to deal with out of control people in any event.

[Bob Seijas]

The guy who took over my Riot Platoon in Newark was manning a State Police roadblock on the edge of the riot area. A car pulled up with six guys in it, the driver got out and yelled at the Trooper, "Why you pig MFs stopping us?" The Trooper backhanded him across the mouth and teeth flew, the guy went down with blood pouring from his nose and mouth. Holy cow, my guy thought, this must be the strongest cop in the world. He asked the Trooper about it and the cop smiled, showed him his hands -- sap gloves filled with BB shot.

They cuffed the guy and tossed him in the Jeep, the cops followed to the detention center and yanked him out. The detention area was in a basement with a long flight of concrete steps leading down to it, maybe 20. The Troopers dragged him to the top and threw him down. His head bounced off about every other step, he landed in a heap at the bottom unconscious. They all returned to the roadblock.

[browningautorifle]

sap gloves filled with BB shot.

I remember those...used to be widely available.