From Combat to Kentucky: Interviews with Kentucky’s Student Veterans

From Combat to Kentucky Oral History Project | Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

The Nunn Center has recently launched From Combat to Kentucky,  a powerful oral history project documenting and archiving the stories of Kentucky’s student veterans returning from military service in Iraq and Afghanistan.  These incredible interviews focus on student’s military experiences as well as on their transition back into civilian life and, in particular, into higher education. The project was featured on this week’s WUKY edition of Saving Stories with Doug Boyd and Alan Lytle. The program features excerpts from interviews with UK students Ian Abney and Andrew Napier:

WUKY: Saving Stories Profiles New Afghan – Iraq War Vets Project

Initial interviews for the From Combat to Kentucky oral history project have been conducted with students at the University of Kentucky who served in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.  We hope to interview student at other educational  institutions in Kentucky very soon.  Interviews are featured at http://www.c2ky.org where you can watch the video interviews as well as explore some of the service photographs being archived by the project as well.  You can also view the entire interviews on the Kentuckiana Digital Library.

If you are an Iraq or Afghanistan veteran and would like to participate or receive more information on the From Combat to Kentucky Oral History Project, contact the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at (859) 257-9672 or Doug Boyd at doug.boyd@uky.edu.  If you are interested in participating, please inquire at the C2Ky website.

40th anniversary of Kent State protests at UK: Students burn ROTC Building

Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Kentucky

On May 5, 1970, students of the University of Kentucky reacted to the shootings that occurred the day before at Kent State University.  Student protests occurred around the University of Kentucky throughout the day including a protest of the UK Board of Trustees meeting on the 18th floor of Patterson Office Towers. The protests escalated into the evening, and city and state police were called to campus to assist campus police in full riot gear.  After a peaceful memorial march, the protest culminated outside the Buell Armory.  Angry students made speeches, a brick was thrown through a window of the Buell Armory.  At some point during this gathering, a wooden annex to the Air Force ROTC building on the other side of the student center became engulfed in flames–allegedly due to arson.

Listen to latest episode of Saving Stories on WUKY: Kent State Repercussions Felt On UK Campus

On this episode of Saving Stories on WUKY, Alan Lytle and Nunn Center Director Doug Boyd explore oral histories with University of Kentucky student Sue Anne Salmon who was  arrested and incarcerated that night for allegedly burning down the building (and was later released due to insufficient evidence), Joseph Burch the director of campus security at the University of Kentucky, as well as with Louie Nunn who was Governor at the time of the protests and called out the National Guard the next day.

Although several theories are circulated in the oral histories, there was never any definitive proof revealing responsibility for the burning of the ROTC annex at UK.

University of Kentucky’s University Archives and Records Program has extensive records pertaining to this protest, including photographic documentation of the protests that day as well as recordings of the hearings that were held in the aftermath.   Full interviews and a photo/oral history-based digital exhibit are expected to go online very soon so stay tuned!