Interview with John Schooley

Partial Transcript: Let me start out. I was nineteen years old...

Segment Synopsis: John was a Sophomore in the Naval ROTC at the time of the demonstrations. He was in class during the riot when the fire alarms went off, and his class walked out of the back of Bascom Hall into a crowd of police, students, and tear gas. He snuck around the commotion and made it back to his fraternity house.

Keywords: ROTC; tear gas

Partial Transcript: And I was very flustered by it

Segment Synopsis: John, as a conservative students, felt confused and shocked after the Dow Demonstration. The riot and the media attention surrounding it caused John to question both the nature of the war and the nature of reporting – he believed that the police were at fault, not the students.

Partial Transcript: Er... I ended up a few days later. It might have been a week later

Segment Synopsis: John talks about Richard Nixon’s visit to Madison within a week of the Dow Demonstration. John’s fraternity brother recruited him to become the “bodyguard” for Nixon. John continues to talk about the events surrounding American politics during the late 1960’s: political assassinations, failures in Vietnam, etc. These events caused John to drop out of the ROTC, leave his fraternity, and become a conscientious objector in the field of medicine. He continued to work with veteran’s affairs until his retirement.

Partial Transcript: How much of that do you attribute to these events

Segment Synopsis: John believes the Dow Demonstration of October 18th was a turning point in his life and led to his sudden disillusionment with the American Government. He acknowledges that he did not experience any personal trauma during the incident. John concludes by affirming the importance of October 18th on the UW campus.

Keywords: US Government