Jim Kinsey
2023
Jim Kinsey graduated in 1967 from New Philadelphia High School and was drafted into the U.S. Army infantry for two years, 1969 - 1970. He was an honor graduate of the Non-Commissioned Officer academy at Fort Brenning, Georgia, and was promoted to staff sergeant E-6. After serving as a senior drill sergeant at Fort McClellan, Alabama, he was assigned to the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) as an infantry platoon sergeant in Vietnam. He fought with a small group of soldiers in the mountainous jungles near the Loatian border for a year. Upon returning home he earned degrees in mechanical and industrial engineering, and after working in manufacturing, taught mechanical engineering technology at Kent State Tuscarawas for thirty-three years. He is a senior member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, received Kent State's Vision 21 award for outstanding alumni, is past state president of the Ohio Association of Engineering Graphics, and was honored with the campus' Distinguished Teaching Award. He retired as a university Emeritus Professor and resides with his wife Connie in New Philadelphia.
Unwilling Warriors: Surviving the Vietnam War
There was nothing gallant or patriotic about the backside of the Vietnam War. After the campus riots, the burning of draft cards and the pretense of winning an unwinnable war subsided, the war still ground on. This is a seldom told story about the dark side in our history when a young man's choices were Canada, prison, or Vietnam.
This is a story about a local boy who answered the call - just as his uncles and neighbors had during the Big War. It's a story of daily survival, human bonding, unspeakable carnage, moments of terror, and even laughter at the absurdity of it all. It's a story told after more than fifty years of silence in hopes that future generations will learn from those mistakes. It's the story of so many that can no longer speak for themselves.