My recollections of May 8, 1970 outside the SUB at UNM:
My name is John Konopak, formerly Sergeant in the USAF, Sept 64 to Sept 68.
Not a combat vet, I am a Vietnam Era survivor. I was one of the lucky ones. I could have been sent anywhere, but I got Germany. The military can send you anywhere and you go, tell you to do anything and you DO it. I made my rank, kept my nose clean and got out.
I separated in Sept ‘68, and I started at UNM that semester. I had become radicalized over the previous two years, so when I went back to school, I immediately joined V V A W = VietNam Veterans against the War at UNM.I was on campus that day--may 8-- because I had classes and there were meetings and rallies. As I recall, the day before, word had come down that a load of heavy stuff was gonna land on the students who had occupied the SUB, the Student Union Building for a couple of days. I think they also occupied the president’s office, whose name was Ferrel Heady, which was a kind of empty gesture, since he was out of town.
Furious activism was everywhere that week since the War Crimes at Kent State on that Monday. The Demonstrations were organized and planned for that Friday. The student organizers appealed to the VVAW to act as marshals if disturbances occurred, and so it was agreed, which was how, that Friday noon, I was between standing on the causeway between the Guard with their bayonets fixed, and angry students on the plaza and causeway, being pressured to retreat by the glittering blades.
I remember watching the Deuce-and-a-halfs pull up along Central, right across the street from where the Frontier restaurant would be, the next year, and watch as the combat-clad Guardsmen debauched, fixed their bayonets, formed up, and marched up the causeway towards the SUB plaza which was teeming with activity.. There was a sense of unreality watching the scene unfold. I, myself, was both angry and fearful. We ALL were aware that the Ohio Guard were the culprits in the KSU tragedy. We didn’t have the faintest idea what the NM Guard had been ordered to do.
Soi, I was fearful. But I was angry, too. Raging and furious after Kent State. I was (am) a veteran, had a Good Conduct medal and a Presidential Unit Citation! to prove it. What the HELL were these yahoos doing pulling their steel on me? The fury arose as it always does, from the futility.I recall that radio and t-v stations were more or less inciting the good burghers of Burque to go watch the hippies get their A****S kicked. There was very little sympathy for the students, off-campus. Burque in 1970 was a VERY Conservative place.
Other than a couple of Guardsmen waving their bayonets in my face, I had no direct contact, no interactions at all.
I do not believe I suffered any injury other than incurring an abiding loathing for cheering by-standers.
Issues of administration, etc, are all WAY over my pay grade.
My strongest memory of that day was the smell of a lot of blood in the sun.
My feelings that day were not greatly different than today: Feelings of restless, hopeless, furious futility. There was really nothing "WE" could do then. There was really nothing we can do now….
The Viet Nam (Era) Veterans' Dilemma:
How to account for serving "honorably" in such an essentially dishonorable cause?
Trying to reconcile that aporia is ONE source of PTSD, I beieve.
The difference between VietNam and previous wars was that it was so transparently cynical, like all the little wars that have followed.
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose….
1. What is your recollection of the events as they happened?
2. What information sources did people have as events were unfolding?
3. Did you have any direct interaction with the National Guard or law enforcement officers?
4. Were there repercussions for you in the aftermath, e. g., mental, physical, academic, or financial effects?
5. What lessons were learned or should have been learned by the different actors involved: UNM administration, state government, National Guard, law enforcement officials, students, media?
6. When you think back to that day or that time period, are there any particular emotions that rise to the surface?
White privilege is real. Take a minute to compare a Black person’s experience today.
