On April 4, 1968, Air Force 2nd Lt. Lloyd âFigâ Newton was enjoying the afternoon in San Francisco with friends before deploying from Travis Force Base for Vietnam. Hours before his scheduled departure, he got the news.
Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis. As a young black officer, Newton felt he had to decide whether to go ahead and fight a war outside this country during a time of racial turmoil in the United States.
âMy whole day, my whole life, changed at that point,â Newton said. His Air Force friends stayed with him for a short time until he went off by himself to think about his decision.