Reminders of the past and reflections thereon are apparently the venue fools inhabit. I feel a fool. My wife thinks I'm naive. I think that almost 30 years in the Army made me a bit of a cynic and said so but my wife insisted I think the best of folks.

Today I was watching a made-for-TV movie, "In Pursuit of Honor". Purportedly about a true event (about which there is absolutely no documentation), the movie does start off with a scene at the Bonus Army march in the summer of 1932.

In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans - $1.25 for each day served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not be made until 1945. Members of the Bonus Army encamp within sight of the Capitol. However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately.

In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C. to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited.

The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol. Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from materials dragged out of a junk pile nearby - old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin covered with roofs of thatched straw.

Discipline in the camp was good, despite the fears of many city residents who spread unfounded "Red Scare" rumors. Streets were laid out, latrines dug, and formations held daily. Newcomers were required to register and prove they were bonafide veterans who had been honorably discharged. Their leader, Walter Waters, stated, "We're here for the duration and we're not going to starve. We're going to keep ourselves a simon-pure veteran's organization. If the Bonus is paid it will relieve to a large extent the deplorable economic condition."

The sad truth is that MacArthur and the D.C. Police managed to kill 4 including 2 children. This happened because the Army charged/attacked veterans and their families to include women and children. Men we now lionize for their service during WWII didn't much hesitate to order their soldiers to attack unarmed and peaceful protesters. This happened in part because the Congress borrowed against the money set aside for the bonuses just as Congress has been using money taken for Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid to pay for other things. When I see what the POTUS and Dem/S in Congress are trying to do with OUR money now, I'm reminded of this past act. I wonder when it will be that they will start to deny their needy former defenders of their support and when they will order us to be run/shot down in the streets...

Labels: Culture, History, Military

  ¶ posted by Hobie 3:09 PM