Jim Kinsey
2024
Jim Kinsey graduated from New Philadelphia High School in 1967 and was drafted into the U.S. Army infantry and served in 1969 - 1970. He was an honor graduate of the Non-Commissioned Infantry Academy and became a staff sergeant, E-6. After serving as a senior drill sergeant of an advanced infantry training company in Ft. McCellan, Alabama, he was sent to Vietnam and assigned as an infantry platoon sergeant with the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal). He fought with a small group of soldiers in the mountainous jungles near the Laotian border for a year.
Upon returning home and being discharged, he earned degrees in mechanical and industrial engineering and completed graduate school. He worked in manufacturing before taking a position with Kent State University where he taught mechanical engineering technology for thirty-three years. He is a senior member of the Society of Mechanical Engineers (SME), received Kent State's Vision 21 Award for outstanding alumni, is past state president of the Ohio Association for Engineering Graphics, and was honored with the campus' Distinguished Teaching Award. He retired as a university Emeritus Professor and resides in New Phila. with his wife Connie.
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 that dark side in our history when a young man's choices were Canada, prison or Vietnam.
This is a story about a Midwest boy who answered the call - just as his uncles and neighbors had done 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 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.