I had a riot
When M.L.King was killed, I was in the 82nd Airborne Division. The National Guard troops that had been activated to protect DC, had permitted some of the crowds to approach them too close; they were warming their hands at fire barrels on the streets, and were forcefully deprived of their M1's. No ammo had been issued to those poor guys.
So to proctect the representatives, senators, judges, etc., "we" were sent in.
No, we didn't jump in, but I did witness out of the windows of our C130's the national capital with fires blazing throughout it's neighborhoods! What an historical sight. The capitol and memorials were lit up, and all around were fires.
We were issued ammunition plane side, and had even take the M60's with us.
The Little Sisters of the Poor provided hot soup and sandwiches for us, which I am grateful for to this day.
The first evening of declared martial law, a car full of rioters, attempted to run the roadblock at my intersection. I heard his engine gun, and some of my men calling a warning out. We shot the tires -all four, out, and before the car came to a skidding stop, the occupants were bailing out, screaming "don't shoot, don't shoot!" They had no firearms, but did have a trunk full of axes, machetes; that kind of thing.
The only other incident happened the next day when a group of men began forming in the streets, and we walked towards them -bayonets fixed. They were ordered to disperse, and when we became close, they broke up and went to their homes, but not before several of them had angry things to say.
I sympathized with them on one hand, but I also did not want the group to grow and a mob to form which would have led to something bad.
The looting stopped that day too, and in one or two days the rioting was over. The neighborhood children came out at daytime, and would approach us asking if we had ammo? I instructed my men to show that we indeed had, and the word got around.
We were armed with the older M16 at the time. It had the pronged flash suppressor that would snag on vegetation in the field. The 82nd had a sniper school at that time and they were armed with scoped M14's. They were stationed on the roof tops.
The DC police would pull up in busses following our reports on the radio, and were always arriving well after the incidents were over, and would put on quite a show of "macho," which made me laugh to myself as to what was really going on.
I was a young man then, and it was an experience I will not forget.
