Vets take back their WWII Memorial
The Washington Post reports that ninety veterans stormed the barricades at the World War II Memorial in DC today. According to the story, they arrived on an Honor Flight at about 10 o’clock this morning for the explicit purpose of seeing their memorial and, by golly, they did, with help of some Congressmen and the tacit approval of the Park Police;
“I’m not going to enforce the ‘no stopping or standing’ sign for a group of 90 World War II veterans,” said a U.S. Park Police officer, who declined to give his name. “I’m a veteran myself.”
The veterans, from Mississippi, were visiting the memorial on the Mall as part of an honor flight program. They had chartered an $80,000 airplane, and their plans were too far advanced to postpone when the government shut down, said Wayne Lennep, spokesman for the Mississippi Gulf Coast honor flights.
The group arrived at Reagan National Airport at 10 a.m. on a flight from Gulfport, Miss. By 11 a.m., the veterans were on the Mall, where the many memorials and monuments were supposed to be closed.
“It’s the best civil disobedience we’ve seen in Washington for a long time,” [Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.)] told the group.
The German and Japanese Armies didn’t scare them, what are a few barricades?
Oh, if you have anger issues, stay out of the comments on the WaPo article.
Category: Veterans Issues
Yeah, my local NPS office said that the local battlefields will be close…but they have officers to ticket your cars if you park in the parking lots.
The same thing happened at the Korean memorial when a group of Korea veterans from Puerto Rico.
Great Story, thanks for sharing John.
Jonn was right…..I made the mistake of reading the comments…
The WaPo commenters are largely delusional, especially the one asshole who opines that the Park Police are the only thing keeping the Tea Party from vandalizing monuments. He doesn’t seem to know about how the Tea Party rallies leave the place looking better than how they found it, and how it’s the occupooper types who commit all the vandalism.
What a bunch of incompetent, uncaring idiots those overblown, self-righteous fools are while they pretend to give a shit about anything other than themselves as they sit under the Capitol dome. Real Americans know what is important.
Have had the opportunity to work with the Park Police on several occasions and they have ALWAYS been very professional, highly motivated, and generally great people. It does not surprise me at all that they would facilitate these veterans.
Stormed the Monument in wheelchairs! Good for them!
I love this stuff!
“Oh, if you have anger issues, stay out of the comments on the WaPo article.” Jonn, you proved again that you’re a master of understatement. There is no common ground to be found with the likes of the poster Interstate36 and the rest of his mind-numbed idiots over at the WaPo.
Meanwhile, while driving to my golf game this a.m., I didn’t see a single aircraft fall out of the sky. The traffic advisory signs on the U.S. highway I traveled on still worked. The post office was open. So, I guess David Gregory, Bob Schieffer and the rest of the drive-by media were wrong, the sky didn’t fall today.
After about the 24th time of being banned from making comments on the WaPo site did I gather than they have no interest in debate, sharing ideas, etc.
They just want to act like a bunch of spoiled little jackwagons. Eff ’em.
And kudos to those veterans who had the stones (again!) to have the courage to go forward when some idiot tries to tell them no.
Good for them!
So the Park Police are still on duty. Why then are the monuments closed? I can understand the gift shops and the like closed, but you just walk around the monuments, there aren’t tickets or doors or presentations. If they are OURS, the American people, then why not be able to walk through them?
This is just like the sequester, closing and cutting things to purposely hurt people instead of saving money, etc. 80% of government workers are still on the job. Why not shutter the EPA, Dept of Ed, Dept of Injustice, ATF, Energy, and the DOT instead?
Oh, they DID severely curtail the CDC. And NASA. So we have people in space that are jeapordized, and diseases that may or may not be caught and stopped before a pandemic, but by God, the welfare checks will roll out on time.
The tax payers will be made to SUFFER. The tax spenders…not so much.
The important question concerning the Mall is: Are the foreign vendors still out in force selling everything from T-shirts to sausage rolls?
Way to go, boys!
Heh! After storming Anzio, Salerno, Normandy, Guadalcanal, Saipan, etc, I imagine some pissant NPS sawhorses didn’t present much of an obstacle.
Shai Dorsai!!!
I have spoken to folks near both Antietam and Gettysburg battlefields. They say that the NPS has blocked access and is warning folks not to even attempt to WALK on those grounds, as they “belong to the federal government.”
What a crock. WE are the federal government. Those fields belong to us. The rangers and other NPS staff can go diddle themselves for all I care, but they should have no right to close off those lands to our citizens.
Interestingly, the Gettysburg Visitor’s Center is open, as it is a privately funded and operated program.
I am thinking the Park Police knew this memorial was for these men and had no issue here….just some numb nut politicians looking for a photo op and some posters at WaPo who have opinions that no one cares about anyway crying like the little whiny b1tches they are….
Glad this had a really positive outcome all around.
Men who helped defeat Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany are not likely to be run off by flimsy barriers and feckless bureaucracy. I’m sure that unidentifed Park Service officer who allowed them in has already been fired.
@ 14 … ROG THAT!
To the BOYS and GIRLS Mounting the Assault of the WWII Memorial Today,
It belongs to you … DEFEND IT WELL!
We are just the custodians.
Bartender … Yes another!
So, a group of stone monuments around a path and benches takes money to operate? I can understand not turning on the lights, but it is the daytime… there is a big light up hanging in the sky that works for free (yay, fusion). So, why would the park police be active but the monuments and pathways be closed?
MSM is playing up that the vets were “escorted” to the memorial, that the barricades were “opened” for them by the Congresscritters. Anybody have any video? If those vets actually engaged in civil disobedience and pushed past the barricades, it needs to be known — and shown.
If the SS couldn’t stop them, did the Park Police really think they could?
They are getting pretty stupid about things around DC. I got an e-mail yesterday telling me that the Capitol Crescent Trail–a rails-to-trails bike/walking path which runs through DC–was going to be closed on the section that runs through the C&O Canal National Park. Really? A bike trail?
My wife reported that the road through Rock Creek Park was closed this afternoon. I was hoping it was for maintenance instead of because it’s a National Park. But the local news station (I had to go there, because the National Park Service website was taken down) reports that “Beach Drive, south of Wise Road and north of Broad Branch Road, is closed in both directions due to the government shutdown.”
It is now official, the inmates are running the asylum . . .
RE: the WAPO comments. From time to time I pop in there just to torment the kool aid drinkers. Fun to poke whiners with the truth; while watching them gnash their teeth, wring their hands and complain.
I have complete faith in the men and women of the Park Service police all along, having worked with them a few times myself, too. Besides, it was somewhat interesting watching the officers smurk at the commie road shows…
I had an interesting exchange with NYPD as the occupy/commies marched on May day last year. They wanted to hold signs that said “Occupy a Job”, “Occupy a Skill Before You Demand $75K”, and “Occupy a Shower”. While they were not allowed to hold any of these signs, they did help me occupy a cab saying no decent American should have to deal with these idiots.
Generally, police are not the bad guys and attempt to use some common sense.
All the closures of roads and fields is just theatre. Signs for the press to show to the masses.
So, the repubs offered a bill that would have funded VA and the corpse from Nevada said no. So did the twig from Chicago, Hawaii, Kenya, or wherever the hell he’s from. With John “Kleenex” Bonehead in charge of the House, what could possibly go wrong?
The ISSUE is Obamacare, foisted on the American public by those who are exempt from its provisions. Oh, and I would be remiss not to blame that knucklehead John “I Want To Be Loved” Roberts whose infamous majority decision sealed the deal. The politicians are supposed to be creepy and snakelike. That’s expected behavior–but there’s a special place in Hell for Roberts.
You just offended creepy snakes everywhere with that comparison, Air Cav! 😉
I say handcuff the m to their desks and feed them nothing but MRE’s & water until they fix the mess they’ve made!!!
In #29, I was referring to the politicians!
id the golf courses close at Andrews and Belvoir? That would piss off Dear Leader.
AW1Tim–this nation belongs to the federal government?
Our ancestors would have been shooting by now.
They are losing this. If the Republicans just hold fast it’ll really go a long way in breaking these people’s hold over America.
I mean the Dems are losing.
“Our ancestors would have been shooting by now.” They WERE shooting by now!
You see, this omnipotent, omnipresent centralized gov’t wasn’t supposed to be. But between Supreme Court decisions regarding interstate commerce and crazy, make-it-up-as-you-as-you-go-along decisions (e.g., “penumbra of rights”), as well as state dependency on the Feds for grants, subsidies, and other goodies, the states sometimes lost and at other times willingly surrendered their independence. What a mess. No individual will turn this around. And throwing the bums out–only to be replaced by bums in the making–doesn’t have staying power. Can we please just have one tiny rebellion and then hit restart, using the Constitution as our guide?
I posted this over on Ace.
Pardon my insubordination, but open commissaries actually generate money. When they are closed, they consume money…electricity etc. But an asshole that has no experience other than being a community organizer wouldn’t know that. PS Barry: many/most of the people that work in/patronize commissaries look like you and your imaginary son Trevon.
Barry and Mooch: FU and the horse you rode in on. I really don’t like you. And Harry. And Madame Botox. And the honkies that characterize your Cabinet. FU.
As I said on another site, Obamas part of the government is open, it’s our part that’s closed. His 50 state “Blame the Tea Party” tour will begin in a few days, AF-1, two C-17’s, a dozen armored cars and fifty Secret Service agents flying around the country so he can give the same speech to breathless ObamaBots.
@38, Roger, what do you think that propaganda tour will cost us taxpayers? I think it’ll cost us around $1 mil per day at the least, but HEY, [wannabe] Emperor B. Hussein 0bama IS NOT to be denied any luxury he or his family & friends desire, just ask any snot-drooling liberal!!
Bless those Veterans for doing the right thing and visiting their memorial. And yes, our ancestors would have been shooting by now.
GOD BLESS THEM…Hand Salute!
The NPS is now threatening to arrest the next Honor Flight group: http://www.northwestohio.com/news/story.aspx?id=953619#.UkuPbhYd7Vm
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/congressman-park-ranger-memorial_n_4037524.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
What a d*ck.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/03/marlin-stutzman-government-shutdown_n_4034123.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
“We’re not going to be disrespected,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.) told The Washington Examiner. “We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
That quote is gonna haunt him in the next election.