A Glorious Gathering of Eagles

This wasn’t a National Geographic special, it was the name given to a last minute waving of the lanterns that the enemy was coming. “Patriots Unite!”

And unite they did! With just one month of preparation approximately 30,000 (figures given by Washington National Park Service - I THINK) men, women and children answered the call to action and stood tall and proud around our military monuments.

I had the absolute honor and privilege, as a Desert Storm Army active duty combat veteran, to attend this Gathering Of Eagles with my dad Kurt, a retired Navy Vietnam-Era veteran.

We rode to Washington out of Dandridge TN on a charter bus occupied and provided by Rolling Thunder, Tennessee Chapter 1. A busload of ex-military, leather clad bikers who welcomed us as though we had been a member since birth. Along the ten or so hour long drive, they joked often, slept little, watched movies and somberly discussed the mission at hand.

In January of this year, anti-war activists marched on the Capital as they often have. Only difference was, this time they painted the capital steps when they got there and they adorned the Navy monument, The Lone Sailor, with a pink crown representing the CODE PINK activists for peace.

Along with various other memorial desecrations across the country, various pro-veteran groups sat up and took notice. The dragon had awakened.
Their next march was planned for March 17th 2007. Only this time they were marching to the Pentagon and starting the march next to the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

Known to veterans as “The Wall” and considered to be hallowed ground, word spread across the internet like a match to jet fuel to “Protect the Wall!!” This coming immediately after the New York Times report on horrible conditions many veterans face at Walter Reed hospital, the dragon was now angry.

As interest and numbers grew, the mission expanded. Vietnam veterans vowed to circle and protect The Wall, Navy veterans planned to protect The Lone Sailor, others vowed to protect the various other military monuments in the area as well as provide a “shield” to the Arlington National Cemetery hoping the spirits of the fallen would not have to see or hear the protestors.

It quickly became very clear that more than enough would attend. The mission was expanded again. These others decided to arrange themselves in various locations along the planned march route to show support for soldiers and the current military operations overseas.

Calling themselves the new “silent majority” they now considered themselves as having two primary objectives. First and foremost was to protect the memorials from defacement or injury. Second was to gather a force large enough to show our country’s leaders, and the rest of the world, that veterans were no longer apathetic. They were sick, tired and demanding to be heard.

While thousands held a silent, respectful vigil around the monuments, thousands more listened to speakers a block away and yet thousands more aligned themselves in direct defiance to the peace rally across the road separated by Park Police in riot gear. This last group was anything but quiet as both groups exchanged obscenities, slogans and various barbs.

When the march started, this Gathering of Eagles stretched themselves along the march route and formed a “gauntlet” through which the anti-war marchers must pass. The Eagles vowed to allow the activists their freedom to march as well as their freedom to speech but also decided they could also exercise their freedom to speech as well, taunting them and hurling messages such as “traitors”. The heat was felt from both sides.