In Their Own Words: Veterans Protest Cutbacks at Rally on the National Mall

Since January, roughly six thousand veterans have been fired by DOGE. The Department of Veterans Affairs, where former service members make up more than a quarter of the workforce, is set to lose another 80,000 workers under VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins’s proposed cutbacks. Veterans’ advocates fear that staffing cuts could severely impact care for millions of former service members. Meanwhile, preparations for next week’s 45 million-dollar celebration on the Mall continue, marking the Army’s 250th birthday and Trump’s 79th.

For many individuals with connections to the military, these recent changes mark a turning point. On Friday, June 6, more than 5,000 demonstrators descended on the National Mall for the Unite for Veterans, Unite for America rally. Of the participants I spoke to, many were first-time protesters who did not consider themselves to be particularly politically-minded. Often times, these were the same people who had travelled the farthest to attend the rally, taking off work or spending the day traveling because they couldn’t ignore an internal obligation to be there.

If the typical right-wing media portrayal of an anti-Trump protest is one dominated by “wokesters”—people who are “un-American” or “unpatriotic”—then what I saw was the exact opposite. The defining element of the protest was the American flag, the defining line of argument stating a pro-veteran stance should not be a partisan one. I asked protesters why they turned out and what they have to say in response to the president’s habit of deeming those who criticize him unpatriotic.

Scott Wohlars, 47, served in the Marines for one term. He and his wife, Leyla Johnston, 49, came in from Massachusetts.

Wohlars: “If there’s one thing we can hopefully still agree on it’s that we should support veterans, and honor that, and hopefully that’s a message that gets to everyone. What do we agree on anymore? So hopefully veterans and veterans care and just supporting veterans is something that everybody can agree on, and something that we can come together with. . . .

“Look around you, everyone flying the American flag. I’m a marine corp veteran myself. You want to try to come to me and tell me that I don’t deserve a place at the table or I’m not a real American, you know, fuck you. What have you done? I served. I didn’t have a bone spur. I went out there and I fucking served. So I’m not asking for anything crazy. It’s just that we have a VA for a reason. I lived up to my end of the bargain. That’s all we’re looking for.”

Johnston: “Since the founding of the country, veterans have had to fight for their rights, starting in 1783. We happen to live in Springfield, Massachusetts, home of Shae’s Rebellion, so we’re continuing that tradition, demanding the government live up to their end of the contract.”

Andrea Murphy, 39, was a human resources sergeant in the Army from 2004-‘09, serving in Korea and Iraq. She came in from Florida.

“[I came because] I swore to uphold the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and the biggest enemy our Constitution is facing right now is the president. . . .

“MAGA has tried to take our flag [and], patriotism as blindly following this guy, who is a draft dodger, who is delusional at best and psychotic at worst. No, we all stood together, we all took the oath, we all know what it means to fight for our country and to stand together and no veteran left behind. So when he’s trying to do all these budget cuts and tear down the system, it’s important to show up, important to link arms with your fellow brothers and sisters in arms and fight back.”

Paula Walker (right), 78, served in the military for 30 years. She came in from Delaware.

“I believe in change. I’ve been through the civil rights. I’ve been through change before. I protested here years ago about ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell,’ and we got gays coming into the military. . ..

“He doesn’t know what the fuck a patriot is. We’re patriots. He’s using that word ‘patriot’ like it means something to him, and it doesn’t. He’s a draft dodger, he’s scared, he doesn’t have a bone in his body to reach out to any one individual. When has he ever done a kind thing? When has he ever noticed the people who’ve come back from these wars. No, he’s a coward, and he’s definitely not a patriot. He’s abusing that term, and I’m taking it back because ‘patriot’ is us. We were there, we fought it, just like 1776.”

Joe Alaimo served with the expeditionary forces during the Fall of Saigon. He has four gold stars. When asked if The Contrarian could use his photo, he said: “I ain’t worried about the publicly, I just want to get rid of that son of a bitch.” He came in from Pennsylvania.

“I’m here because I’m fed up with them taking health care and benefits from everybody. Medicare, Medicaid, social security, FEMA—everything that we need. . . .

“I fought for my country and he had bone spurs. Who’s the snowflake?”

Adria Odom came in from Virginia. Her father and four uncles served in the military. Two of her great uncles fought on D-Day, and her nephew fought in Iran and Iraq.

“This has to be a turning point, honest to God, because they’re destroying the Constitution. They’re dismantling the very ethics and morality this country aspired to—not necessarily that it was built on, but is certainly aspiring to. . . .

“As long as I have a voice and a vote and they don’t put me in a fucking gulag for coming out and speaking and holding my sign, then I’m gonna do it. . . .

“There’s plenty of good people out here today that served, and they went into service because the government made promises for them. To sacrifice their time, their energy, and possibly their life—they said, ‘When you’re done with this service, we are going to take care of you . . . .

“Yeah, taking back the U.S.A., man. I hate that they took that chant. It’s like a fucking stain on the soul of America.”

Steven Williamson, 44, served in Iraq for four years.

“I’m a veteran, and my father was a veteran. My grandfather was a veteran. And I think that the cuts to the VA are an insult to the legacy of those generations of veterans, and the ones to come after us, and we owe them better, and we sacrificed a lot, and this country wouldn’t be what it is without those sacrifices . . . .

“This is patriotism. You think that only your form of patriotism is valid, then it’s not patriotism that you like, it’s privilege that you like, and that’s not America.”

Don Buckter, 75, came in from San Francisco. His son serves in the Army infantry.

“I’m here for America . . . .

“I’m from San Francisco. Out of SFO, my departing terminal was Harvey Milk terminal. Sad, bitter, sick, ugly irony that a ship bearing his name has been stripped of that name by my son’s boss, Mr. Hegseth. I say my son’s boss—my son is U.S. army infantry, with an excellent infantry badge. So that’s why I’m here from San Francisco . . . .

This must stop. And I do see people coming together. We can get together. We’re gonna win. Then we can bicker. Then we can pick up the cudgels the democratic way. Right now the situation is dire.”

Charlotte Anderson, 62, served active duty from 1980 to ‘84 and was in the reserves from ‘89 to ‘92. She is an AFGE local 498 vice president and came in from Washington state.

“[I’m here to] ensure that Lincoln’s promise is kept . . . .

“Our veterans deserve to be taken care of. And they didn’t ask for the Vietnam war. They didn’t ask to be injured and come back with needs. I’m a retired VA employee as well, and I’m a registered nurse, so I took care of these veterans, and I see their first-hand struggles.”

Noah Segal, 41, is an Iraq war veteran who served two tours. He came in from New Jersey.

“Supporting the country without criticizing, without questioning, is more like nationalism. Patriotism, for me, is wanting the country and the government to live up to the ideal that it’s supposed to be. So you have to criticize, you have to question, in order to be a patriot. . .

“One of the times I was in Iraq, one of the things my unit was doing was helping provide security for Iraqi elections. And the Iraqi people at the time were going out, risking their lives, standing in line, and were very proud to show the ink on their fingers to show that they had voted for the first time ever, for the first time in their collective memory. Seeing that—it reinforces the fact that there’s so much apathy in this country when it’s a piece of cake for most people to vote here, and so many people don’t do it.”

Brenda Parada, 62, was a public servant for thirty-five years. She spent nine years in the Army, and the rest in the federal service. Her father served in the Air Force, her brother in the Army, her brother-in-law in the Navy, and her great uncle in World War II. She came in from Virginia.

“I’m upset for my colleagues. I mean, it’s ridiculous. They just fired people randomly, no intelligence process or anything. And so, we’re all going to suffer. I’m here because, mainly, I’m a veteran, but pretty much everybody’s just protesting all this BS. I mean, this guy thinks he can do anything, just with the wave of his hand. . . .

“I was telling someone the other day, if we keep going down this hill and people get arrested willy nilly and stuff—you know, some people are even afraid to come down here. I said, ‘I’m not afraid if they throw me in jail. Throw me in jail!’ I risked my life, why am I afraid of going to jail? . . .

“He thinks that it’s his country, and it’s not. It’s our country, just like my sign says. We continue to fight for this country. It’s not his country he thinks it is. He’s just following in the footsteps of Bukele in El Salvador and Putin, he won’t criticize Putin. It’s like, I wonder why? We’ve got to use logic here.”

Jerry Lang, 70, came in from Chicago. His brother served in Vietnam.

“I decided that [there is] no better way to spend my birthday than to be here. . . .

“Congress is not upholding their oath. They don’t take an oath to a man. They take it to the Constitution. And all these people that are supporting this guy and supporting MAGA are violating their oath to the Constitution, plain and simple. . . .

“I’m from Chicago. I could spot a grifter a mile away. And he was a grifter before he got his little TV show, and he’s still a grifter. A leopard don’t change its spots.”

Ariel Rodriguez and her father, who served in the military for 24 years. They came in from Charlottesville.

Rodriguez’s father: “We wanted to support the veterans—I’m a veteran myself—and make sure that the regime knows that we’re against what they’re doing to the veterans services. . . .

“He’s asinine. He doesn’t know anything. I mean, I recall a picture of him wrapping his arm around and kissing the American flag. He did that for show. He has no credibility when it comes to ‘patriotic.’ He’s a five-time draft dodger. So: absolutely not.”

Scott Hennessey, 67, served in the military for four years. He came in from Chicago.

“I got out, no combat, no lost limbs, disabilities physical or mental. And yet those people are who I’m here for—to make sure that they get the help that they need. . . .”

“A country that doesn’t support its military—if you let people go and die for your country, and then you don’t take care of them. I mean, I can’t think of anything worse.”

Fred Doocy (left), 72, served in the Army from 1972 to ‘75. He came in from Connecticut. Lawrence Henderson (right), 72, served in the Navy from 1971 to ‘79. He came in from Chicago. They hadn’t met each other until that morning.

Doocy: “Things like this that draw people together—we need numbers of people, large numbers of people doing things like this frequently. . . .

“People will take notice. That’s the power that we have. It doesn’t mean everybody has to do a lot. Everybody just has to do something.”

Henderson: “Bottom line is democracy. We can’t move forward without a democracy. . . . The fire lives with me as well. And we’re just going to keep grinding it on and on until we get our democracy back. Because if we don’t get it, there’s no future for us.”