Shut down? Hell no! say angry vets who storm barricades at D.C. memorial

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News


They made it home from the front lines, so they weren't about to let a bunch of bickering politicians keep them from their sacred mission — honoring their own.

No way.

So a group of Honor Flight veterans gathering at the World War II Memorial in Washington defied the government shutdown and carried on.

Leo Shane III of Stars and Stripes reported that the veterans, who had traveled from Mississippi, knocked down barriers to the memorial in an effort to pay their respects.



The Atlantic Wire's Connor Simpson reported that around 90 veterans had traveled from Mississippi to visit the memorial.

As might be expected, plenty of politicians were on the scene. Shane reported, "Credit where due — I watched Rep. Steve King distract a park police officer while vets and staffers knocked down the fences here." King is a Republican from Iowa.

Also there, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., who posed with visitors. National Journal correspondent Elahe Izadi snapped this photo:



The Washington Post spoke to an on-duty Park Police officer at the memorial. “I’m not going to enforce the ‘no stopping or standing’ sign for a group of 90 World War II veterans,” he told the Post. “I’m a veteran myself.” The Post also reported that it was unclear who exactly removed the barriers.

World War II veteran Bob Hunter, 90, expressed his disappointment over the shutdown to the New York Daily News. "I find it disappointing and disgusting for our country to have to go through this. I feel like we deserve better. Somewhere, somehow, somebody screwed up.”

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was at the memorial according to CNN. Apparently upset about the memorial's closure, he was quoted as saying, "I don't get it. I'm furious. I'm trying to get ahold of people. But I can't seem to get ahold of anybody."

Below, veteran Donald Quinn lays a wreath at the memorial, while other visitors look on.

[Pony]

Local news said "although it was closed, they chose to go in anyway". Pretty much butchered the whole story.