Protesters of the night set fire to the ROTC building at the University of Washington | Post-Dispatch Files

The buildings of the Reserve Training Corps of the University of Washington (ROTC) in May 1969. The Army building is on the right, with missiles and howitzers. On the left is the building of the Air Force. Both were just southeast of Big Bend and Millbrook boulevards. In 1969 and 1970, anti-war protesters tried to abolish the programs or move them off campus. On February 23, 1970, the ROTC Army building was destroyed in a mysterious arson. Another fire during a violent protest on May 5, 1970 destroyed the building of the Air Force. That happened around 12:30 a.m. at the end of angry demonstrations in reaction to the previous day's killings of four students by National Guard soldiers at Kent State University near Akron, Ohio. Six former students at the University of Washington were finally convicted of charges stemming from the riots and fire, although one defendant was acquitted in a new trial. The ROTC programs of the University of Washington and the University of St. Louis later operated from a building on Forest Park Avenue in St. Louis. Today, the Army ROTC has programs on the north campus of the University of Washington, north of Delmar Boulevard, and the Air Force ROTC programs are at the University of St. Louis. (Post-clearance)