On this day, April 4, in the year 1968, I was in the middle of basic training for the U.S. Army Reserve at Ft. Ord, California. I think it was late afternoon in California, and my company was at the rifle range, a large area where a number of us would stand in a row shooting at human shaped targets. My company was composed of reservists, serving the first part of their six month active duty requirement, before going home to serve six full years as a reservist (hoping that we would not find ourselves activated and sent to Vietnam). A number of us, like me, were from St. Louis. Others were from Dallas, Hawaii, Arkansas, places I cannot remember, and rural Louisiana. Most of the guys from Louisiana were not like the rest of us, or so it seemed.

Our target practice was interrupted when a voice called out from a loud speaker system that I didn’t even know existed: “Your attention, please. We have just received word that Rev. Martin Luther King has been shot and killed in Memphis.”

It was a shock, to be sure. But the next shock was at least as great. A cheer went up from many of my fellow recruits.

There was one Louisianan who I was quite friendly with during the few weeks of basic training. I don’t remember his name (I have blotted most of the names connected with Ft. Ord out of my memory years ago). He was a tall guy, and fairly heavy. He had not gone to college (at least yet), and had been working at a filling station outside of Lafayette. He was bright, knew right from wrong, and was very nice.

The cheering at the news did not surprise him at all. He was a little surprised, though, at the letter that came from his mother, thanking God for MLK’s death.

As we all know, it was just a few months later that Robert Kennedy was killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. I was still in basic training, and as lights went off early for those six weeks, we did not learn about Kennedy’s death until we woke up early the next morning. Interestingly, my memory does not recall anyone cheering at that moment. I think we were all, isolated as we were, traumatized by what was going on in that part of the country that was not Ft. Ord – war, assassinations, demonstrations, drugs and music. We were sealed off in basic training – helpless, but somehow protected. Where was the world heading?

Today, we have some of the same feelings, I guess. Our country was divided then; it is divided now, and the future is uncertain today, as it was then. As ex-President Trump heads to the New York courthouse to be arraigned today, a new wild card is being dealt, and we don’t really know what is going to happen. We are told that cameras will not be allowed in the court room, but will be allowed in the hallways. We know that there will be security at all stages of the arraignment. But still, my mind flashes back. Images of Jack Ruby come into my consciousness again and again. I will be so glad when all this is over.

Yes, I know……it never will be.