A Time to Cry
The violence of war entered American homes every night on the television news. That
violence seemed to echo in political
assassinations, race riots and protests at home.
 For Michigan, the violence came home with the
1967 Detroit riot. The rioting began near 12th Street and Clairmount in a predominantly
Black, overcrowded low-income neighborhood (see map).
Early on the morning of July 23, 1967, Detroit police raided a blind pig (a speak-easy)
which was illegally selling alcohol after hours. A crowd gathered as those arrested were
put in a police wagon. Riots erupted and quickly spread. Detroit Mayor Jerome P.
Cavanagh
asked Governor George Romney to send in the State Police. Cavanagh later authorized
Romney to call in the National Guard.
It took 17,000 army forces, Michigan National Guardsmen and Detroit police to quell the
riots. The effects of the rioting were enormous: 43 people died, 1,700 stores were looted,
1,383 buildings were burned, and property valued at about $50 million was damaged.
President Lyndon Johnson set up the Kerner Commission to investigate the causes of civil
disorder in American cities.
Approximately 430,000 Michiganians received the Vietnam-era bonus for having served in
the armed forces in that period. Some 2,649 Michiganians were killed or missing in action
in Vietnam.
First Lieutenant Claudia Ann Claflin, a Michigan nurse, in Vietnam, from 1968 to
1969, worked 12-hour shifts, six days a week. Her hobby was music and she played the
organ for the soldiers. They gave her plaques for her playing, which you can see in the
gallery.
She wrote: "As a Seventh Day Adventist Christian, I was able to worship each Sabbath
day in the hospital chapel with other soldiers of like faith. . . . When working the day
shift I was able to take my break at the time that services were held, on the condition
that I come right back if any 'fresh casualties' were brought in. . . . Sometimes I was
able to go out into the valley near Qui Nhon and play the little portable organ for the
Protestant services of the 84th Engineering Battalion. They always were so appreciative."
 This photograph shows First Lieutenant
Claflin's
fatigue uniform (left) in the gallery. She was assigned to work in the Emergency Room and
Preoperative Ward in Qui Nhon. Many of her patients were South Vietnamese; some were Viet
Cong; and others were North Vietnamese Army troops. Most were flown in by helicopter. She
and her colleagues cared for the patients until they were transferred to a ward or taken
to surgery. She described her first months in Vietnam in an early Christmas letter
to friends.
Now Claudia Bahnmiller, she completed her military service in hospitals
in the state of Washington. She later wrote, "I wouldn't trade my
experiences as a Nurse for anything. . . . one of the greatest joys was
there in Vietnam, to care for the GI's when they were hurt, to be able to
assure them that they were now safe, that even tho their injuries were
severe, that they were finished with Vietnam, and enroute to the USA and a
reunion with their families again."
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