A new wave of veterans were forced to move barricades at the WWII
Memorial in Washington Wednesday morning to gain access during the
government slimdown, a spokeswoman from Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., told
FoxNews.com.
The WWII veterans, from Ohio, Kansas and Missouri, arrived at the memorial
one day after another group relied on the assistance from elected officials
to move the barricades to allow access. Parks police did not prevent
the first group from entering, nor did they interfere with Wednesday's
group.
The veterans vowed to make the trek to D.C. regardless of the
situation in Washington. When asked how they were going to visit the
World War II Memorial when it’s closed, Ian Drake, a WWII veteran, said
the group will "find a way in, one way or another. We might have to
climb or something. It's no problem. Well work it out when we get
there."
The veterans are traveling as part of Honor Flight , a program that
enables World War II veterans to partake in an expense-paid trip to view
the memorial.
"A lot of my old comrades were lost in World War II," Ian Drake, a
WWII veteran told the station. "Eighteen of 100 in my graduating class
were lost in World War II, so it's important for me to show my respect
at the memorial."
Yesterday -
With bagpipers playing "Amazing Grace," nearly 200 veterans from
Mississippi and Iowa swept past barricades and security guards at the
World War II Memorial in Washington in order to keep a commitment to
visit the site, which was closed today due to the partial government
shutdown. The veterans, in their 80s and 90s, were accompanied by Rep.
Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., a former Marine who earlier vowed not to let
the National Park Police keep them from a planned visit to the open-air
monument.
"Well, I would have been so down-and-out if I got all the way up here
and wasn't able to get in," Navy veteran Oscar Leroy Russell, 90, who
is blind after he suffered a stroke, told FoxNews.com.
"I’m not going to enforce the 'no stopping or standing' sign for a group of 90 World War II veterans. I’m a veteran myself.”
- U.S. Park Police officer
Some veterans on hand wiped away tears when they saw a crowd waving the American flag as they came out of their bus.
"These men and women didn't cower to the Japanese and Germans,"
Palazzo said. "I don't think they're about to let a few National Park
Police stand in their way."
Palazzo, who was joined by several other members of Congress, moved
the barricades at the memorial and police did not try to stop the
veterans' access.
"I’m not going to enforce the 'no stopping or standing' sign for a
group of 90 World War II veterans," a U.S. Park Police officer, who
declined to give his name, told The Washington Post. “I’m a veteran
myself.”
The veterans are traveling as part of
Honor Flight
,
a program that enables World War II veterans to partake in an
expense-paid trip to view the memorial. Tuesday's trip is the
second-to-last flight, with the last scheduled for November. But prior
to their arrival early Tuesday, there was fear that the government
shutdown and federal worker furloughs would mean no access to the
monuments on the National Mall.
But with lawmakers leading the charge, the American military heroes, some in wheelchairs, surged into the memorial.
"
It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission," Palazzo said.
“We lined the veterans up along the blockade, we saw an opening and we
took it."
Joe Cleveland, of Union, Miss., told
The Mississippi Press
that he would "be thinking about the many battles that have been fought
and thanking all those who were willing to go fight for our country."
Palazzo noted his grandfather, Manuel McCarty, served in World War II
at Guadalcanal and Okinawa. Palazzo was 7 years old when his
grandfather died and said he sees his grandfather in these veterans.
"I only have a couple of memories of my grandfather," said Palazzo,
who has taken part of Honor Flights before. "But each time I see these
men, I envision how he'd be."
"This
is the best civil disobedience we've seen in Washington in a while."
