Dr. King’s death 1968
Dr. King’s Death 1968
Everyone remembers what they were doing when some catastrophic event took place. I was at Basic training at Fort. Bragg, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division. Back in those days, fake news came in the form of rumors. The military has a way of mixing folks that back in those days would not anomaly mix. So we had northern blacks mixed with southern whites, needless to say, there was an undertone of tension in our ranks. My best friend and I joined the military was an Italian guy I worked with. Both our dads wanted us to move on, so we decided to join the Army on the buddy plan. The death of Dr. King shocked us all!
The Unbelievable happened
I the only thing that kept the white recruits and the black recruits from going to blows was the fear of the drill instructors. Our training was gearing up and things got to be routine as much as it could be, getting up in the at 4:30 in the morning awakened by banging on trash cans. One day there was a rumor that Martin Luther King was assassinated. The first thought this was a terrible joke. What’s going on Kennedy now King? One of the of the jobs us recruits had, was walking guard duty around the finance buildings where they paid the soldiers. We could only let our imaginations take over as to what we were hearing about this terrible thing that happened. Some of the recruits were happy about the rumor in the news and others were ready to go to war.
What happened next
We found out the rumor was true because the 82nd Airborne Division jumped in, and trucked in on their own position to lock down the Fort. They came in locked and loaded weapons, and ran us recruits back to our barracks because of the rioting around the country, Under guard we only could talk in low tones and under strict supervision. We heard other rumors of rioting and were instructed by SGT. Williams that any negative talk about what was going on would not be tolerated. Not having the benefit of social media or even the news made us count on or imagination about Dr. King’s death. As time when on the Army drilled it into us that we would be one big happy family because our lives depended on it.
Have we learned?
We had to learn that Dr. Martin Luther Kings teachings where right out of another disrupter’s book, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Dr. Martin Luther King truly a disciple of Jesus Christ they both changed the world…