An Anniversary – A Gathering Of Eagles
OWB posted this elsewhere. OWB also has a better way with words than I and handled security for the event, while I handled communications.
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Ten years ago this morning a group of patriots, mostly veterans, gathered in Washington DC to counter a disgusting assembly of lefty scum as they met at the Wall to recreate their 1967 march on the Pentagon. There are so many parts of that operation which are worthy of mention. But a few things continue to stand out in my mind.
On both sides of the street were people of very different backgrounds who came together for a common cause. Only one group had folks they either paid or otherwise enticed to be there. Seeing the local area yellow buses unloading school children at the site was an eye opener.
Perhaps the most graphic demonstration of the difference between the two groups came when they were literally facing each other across Constitution Avenue with the US Park Service mounted police between them. The whining children were loudly chanting, “What do we want?” followed by a garbled response most of us never identified, then, “When do we want it?” followed by, “NOW!” Meanwhile the Veterans were waving flags while chanting, “USA, USA, USA.” The children who can’t articulate a clear message but they want what they want and they expect someone to provide it right now vs the adults who know what is needed and have already proved their willingness to work hard to make it happen.
What a day. While A Gathering of Eagles wasn’t solely responsible for the awakening of this country, we certainly were an important part of it. It took others also doing important things to get us finally to this point. But we who served in the military understand that it takes each of us doing our jobs to accomplish the mission.
It was an honor to be a small part of the operation we called “A Gathering of Eagles.” Friends were made. Associations were cemented. But mostly, thousands of patriots were energized and given hope when they saw that many others shared their concerns.
Ten years later we see the ripple effect of that energy being directed in positive ways. Thank you all.
Jonn added: TAH was there, by the way.
Category: Gathering of Eagles, Geezer Alert!
Jonn added: TAH was there, by the way.
Thanks, Jonn. For posting that link, but mostly for being there. It took everyone to make it happen.
It was the only time Ol’ Poe got one of his poems published in Huffpo. The article was typical liberal derision written in that snotty sarcastic style that libs do so well when the topic is conservative veterans. I still have my T-shirt with my poem on it, as mentioned in the article, made by Ty Raddue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-kelly/where-eagles-duh_b_42457.html
My poem is about halfway down in the article followed by a sneering critique where that pup suggests Ol’Poe might have a problem with women. He’s right–before I got too old I frequently got smacked by Sweet Thang, my blonde beauty of fifty years, for letting my eyes wander and my tongue hang out. She quit smacking me when she realized I couldn’t do any more than look.
Heh…
Did you notice the androgynous name of the author of the article.
Figures!
Poetrooper,
My favorite part of that linked article, after your poem, is the writers other work…a picture book of cats dressed up as characters from a TV show. Ow that’s a real literary heavyweight critiquing your work. And the whole event. Have you yet gotten over that evisceration? /sarc
Still have my shirt with your poem on it, Poe, also from the Raddues. It’s on a hoody that I wore that day. Thank you for it. It meant a lot to us, and doubly so that it irritated the lefties so.
This very day ten years ago, I was deployed in Iraq and out and about on a convoy traveling on Route Irish from Camp Victory to the IZ to do more operational history stuff.
Thanks to all the Patriots deployed in Washington D.C. that day covering my home flank; your home-area support was and is much appreciated by me….
I was sitting on a mountain at Thule AB watching the Sun slowly start to raise over the horizon for the first time in six months.
This was a deed well done, and deserves to be remembered…crybabies will always exist but we need not lend them any credence and standing in opposition to their dipshit ways is always an appropriate response to their assemblies.
Damn! Has it really been that long ago?
Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.
Same here. I wasn’t even a year out of active duty at that point.
Drove up from Florida to be a part of it. I’ve never been a part of any other kind of mass demonstration, protest, what have you, but I felt absolutely compelled to be there. It was an amazing feeling too, jeering at the commies.
I am proud to say that I was there. Met a lot of great veterans, and great civilian supporters. Had a run in with Media Benjamin from Code Pink, and got interviewed by both Michelle Malkin and Mary Katherine Ham. It was an amazing gathering, as veterans of all ages came together for a common cause, swapped tales and addresses and phone numbers, and yes, helped to start something. For the very first time in my memory, those leftist pukes had folks stand up to them, and those socialist wannabes didn’t know what to do. We veterans, 2,3, and even 4 ranks deep, lined the entirety of their route, and stared them down. In more than one commie’s eyes I saw real, palpable fear. The mass actually started to “huddle” together, moving towards the center of their column to put more distance between themselves and the veterans. The cops loved it. Veterans were thanking them, something they hadn’t had happen in, like, forever, and also buying them coffee, bottled water, etc. Those cops knew what was what that day. I traveled down to DC in a bus full of veterans from Maine. We chartered a bus for the event, and picked up folks along the way throughout the state. We drove straight through, got in just as things were starting, and then loaded up around 1700 for the straight trip back home. The other thing that stood out to me was this: Afterward, the veterans policed up their entire area, and loaded all the trash bags into a rental truck to haul away. That area was left in better shape than when we arrived. Not only that, but it didn’t cost the city a dime for cleanup after us veterans. Compare that to the leftist scum-sucking bottom dwellers. Their assembly area was a dump. Literally. They simple left their trash all over their area. The parade route down the middle of the street was littered with water bottles, sandwich wrappers, flyers they were tossing everywhere, and the trash cans along the street were overflowing with their filth, and pre-made signs… Read more »
I’ll never forget one thing about the cops. When we were at New London the cops were in the middle of the street separating us from the assholes on the other side. All of the cops were facing them with their backs to us. The symbolism of this was not lost on us.
It seemed to me that no matter where the cops were, they understood that we had their backs.
btw AW1Tim: can you believe how tiny Michelle Malkin is? I was surprised.
Yeah. To paraphrase Lincoln’s comment about Dan Sickles “Considering her reputation, I’d have thought her to be much taller.”
My wife drove all night through a snowstorm to be there. I met her just before that when she was standing by herself with a flag counter protesting leftest asshats up our way. I joined her when I was home and after that we protested the miscreants and for our troops many places. West Point, New London, Kennebunkport, DC with the Freepers outside of Walter Reed against those twats of Code Pink. Both of us ran the GOE website for awhile.
She just reminded me we have been together 10yrs.
BTW, out of curiosity I clicked the link to the TAH story from the time, and laughed when I saw this:
“UPDATE: Welcome LGFers”
Boy, quite a bit has changed in ten years.
I was there. Lord have mercy it was cold. The night before we were at the gates of Walter Reed to keep Code Pink and their ilk from being at the gates with their disgusting signs and comments to our wounded there.
Many stories to tell about that day. Mostly proud to have been a part of it.
I remember
I remember walking down after getting off the subway and turning the corner about 0800 and seeing the crowd already onsite. I thought to myself, “This is going to be a memorable day” … and it kept getting better all day long.
All I remember was walking out of work in downtown Chicago with my fists balled just waiting for the first scumbag to say word one in derisYet, as Mayor Lawrence said during his closing comments, ‘It is the soldier, not the journalist, who guarantees freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the student protestor, who guarantees freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the politician, who guarantees the freedom to vote.’ How sad that we often forget.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/11/a_gathering_of_eagles.html#ixzz4bdeC6pcD
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
on to the vets assembled.
I did a google search of Gathering of Eagles and among the many varieties of postings was this fine piece from an American Thinker article:
Sorry the post chopped my comment in the middle… it should be “first scumbag word one in derision” and the rest at the bottom. The the quote starts “Yet , as Mayor…
ending at: …
How sad that we often forget”
I was there too … in fact I think Zero Ponsdorf has pictures of me stuck in the mud in my wheelchair, and being rescued by some veterans with sheets of plywood.
I attended with the mil-blogger SeeJaneMom (who sadly doesn’t blog anymore … as far as I know). She came bearing gifts. Her husband knew that I collect/trade unit patches and he sent some along with her.
It was a damned cold day, but interesting nonetheless.
One thing that stuck in my mind after all this time. When the Code Pink/Left/Liberal crowd departed, their side of the area was ankle deep in placards, signs, junk, debris, trash. On our side … we all got on-line and conducted a “military police-call” and left our area cleaner than it was when we arrived.
Oh, and my wheelchair batteries died. SeeJaneMom and another mil-blogger (his name escapes me, but he drove all night from Atlanta … I think it was Atlanta … to be there) and the two of them had to push me along the National Mall to the Metro Station.
Ten years ago? Had no idea any thing like this was going on. Wish I had known, but c’est la vie.
However, since I was in Washington, DC in 1967 and my barracks Quarters K was up the hill directly across from the Pentagon, I can state that the march on the Pentagon took place in the autumn of 1967, NOT in the spring. I saw it from the hillside, including that episode when the MPs dragged some protesters out of the building, after they had gotten inside to try to find the Selective Service files.
Good times.
I think it’s all apartment buildings now.