Oral History Interview with Kent Yrchik-Shoemaker
Title
Oral History Interview with Kent Yrchik-Shoemaker
Narrator (written)
Kent Yrchik-Shoemaker
Narrator First Name
Kent
Narrator Last Name
Yrchik-Shoemaker
Interviewer
Sara Harris
Abstract
Kent Yrchik-Shoemaker, Assistant Dean of the College. Oral history interview for the Dartmouth Vietnam Project. Yrchik-Shoemaker describes his experience growing up in Minnesota, Washington D.C., and London, England. He discusses his experience attending Michigan State University as an undergraduate student and participating in the Air Force Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC). He describes racial tensions on campus and why he chose to participate in the ROTC. Yrchik-Shoemaker describes his internal conflict with not believing in the Vietnam War and his sense of duty to serve his country. He shares why his friends called him the “ROTC Hippie” and his involvement with anti-war protests. Yrchik-Shoemaker discusses race relations in the military, his feelings of paranoia, and decision to leave flight training school through a process called self-initiated elimination. He explains why and how he had a mental health note in his military file. He describes his transfer to Vandenberg Air Force Base in California where he was trained as a satellite operations controller and his job as crew chief. Yrchik-Shoemaker discusses how he stayed an extra two years in the service and attended classes for counseling. He describes how the Vietnam War was coming to a close and how it impacted his time in the Air Force. He shares his growing mistrust of the military the longer he worked for them. Yrchik-Shoemaker discusses his role as an Assistant Dean at Dartmouth and his involvement with the undergraduate veterans and the challenges returning to school presented for them. He shares his feelings on the current challenges veterans face when they were active military.
Date of Interview
August 9, 2016
Subject
Dartmouth Faculty
Protest/Antiwar Activism
Political Participation
Military Service
Military Service (Air Force)
Dartmouth History
Language
English
Rauner ID
DOH-517
Rights
CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0
Interview Audio Source (MP3)
//rcweb.dartmouth.edu/DDHI/histories/yrchik-shoemaker_kent/yrchik-shoemaker_kent.mp3
Interview Transcript Source (PDF)
//rcweb.dartmouth.edu/DDHI/histories/yrchik-shoemaker_kent/yrchik-shoemaker_kent_transcript_final.pdf
HTML
//rcweb.dartmouth.edu/DDHI/histories/yrchik-shoemaker_kent/yrchik-shoemaker_kent_transcript_final.html