Old War Dogs: Viet Nam

...

By the Spring of 1972, the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) had completed its buildup and was ready to mount a largescale attack on South Vietnam. As part of the assault, two infantry divisions, 30,000 soldiers with tanks and artillery support, began to cross the boundary between the two countries and attack south along Highway 1, the main north-south artery. They would first have to seize a highway bridge over the major water obstacle, the Cua Viet River just north of the town Dong Ha.

Only the Third South Vietnamese Marine Battalion was in a position to block the critical avenue of attack and buy some valuable time. To the 700-man battalion was entrusted the awesome task of stopping, or at least hindering, 30,000 North Vietnamese. .

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Click , follow the links.

Regular readers of this site may wish to note that Arch Arthur, William 1stCav Page, and yours truly all have very intense personal memories of the '72 Easter Offensive. Lord, was that really 35 years ago? It seems like last week.

Some days it feels like yesterday.
Dear Old War Dogs,
I wanted to share my special poem with you -
A Gathering of Eagles.
It's my way of saying WELL DONE!

Thank you all for protecting our national treasures, and speaking up for the millions of us who could not be with you.
God Bless You All!
God Bless the USA!

A Gathering of Eagles, Old Glory flew,
POW Flags...

.thirty thousand of you!
A Band of Brothers gathered around,
Protecting truth and hallowed ground.

The pinko crowd across the way
Had come to town to have their say,
The War on Terror's just like Nam,
Surrender! We can stop the bombs.
Their CRS prevents recall
Of seeing Southeast Asia's fall,
Of genocide, the Killing Fields!

Cut and Run. Who's fate was sealed?
POWs, refugees,
Re-education, If you please!

The vocal crowd- the Great Unwashed,
Non-violent? Oh my gosh!
Millions lie in jungle shrowds,
Johnson bowed to the protest crowd.

Ask the Hmong, if they were saved?
By the anti-war crowd's rant and rave?
God Bless You Eagles!

Thank you all
For guarding freedom and The Mall.
For standing tall and drowning out,
Three thousand retro-pinko shouts!
Update: Marsha has sent me several more poems, of which I'll plan on posting one every few days at , and I'm impressed enough that I've offered to create a separate blog for her if she says she'd have time to post to it.

More on that later if she accepts my offer.
Update 2: It turns out there's already a nice collection of Marsha's poetry at . I'll still plan on posting a lot of what she emailed me and also posting excerpts and links to that site as time goes on.

Update 3: Marsha has seen the light about the advantages of having both a blog and a static web site. I haven't made any promises about when I'll have it ready but I'm going to set up a blog for her under my TypePad account. Address and details to be announced later.

Despite my distrust of the media...

. ..

...

.it turns out that the best reason to hit the pavement on Saturday was over in Washington, D.C.

You would have been hard-pressed to hear so in most media coverage, but Vietnam veterans and other concerned Americans showed up from as far away as Hawaii and Alaska - one unofficial estimate pegged their numbers at 30,000 - to ring and defend the war memorials in the nation's capital, easily outnumbering the ANSWER protesters who drew the bulk of the coverage.
Kristinn Taylor, D.C.

coordinator and spokesman for Gathering of Eagles, said anti-war protesters tried to break through their lines and reach the memorials, but they were not successful. Taylor said the Vietnam vets came together and took a stand for an important reason: They do not want to see this generation of American servicemen and women be put through what they went through.
As a frequent protest crasher, I'm sorry I missed this sea change in the tired old script of Iraq demonstrations.

It was even more uplifting to read messages left afterward on the Eagles' blog by participants.
Forty years lost in the wilderness, wrote one. Forty years in exile.

Behind us now. Yesterday we took our country back. It's in the air.

I can feel it. ..

. We have to care enough to save it. I have hope again.

The quote is from my good friend, Bill Faith. His expression reflects the feelings of many Vietnam vets. For most of their adult lives, they have quietly gone about their business, avoiding the limelight and staying far away from the turmoil of politics.

Scarred by their experiences returning to a nation that rejected them and despised them, they wanted nothing more than to go home and be left alone.
Thanks, Anti. Del emailed me a copy of that column and I decided to take a short nap before I posted about it.

I'm glad I did. You handled it much better than I would have.
I wanted to first bring something out I'm not sure many people caught.

First, listen again to audio of Brian Becker, member of International A.N.S.

W.E.R.

's steering committee and a front group for the Communist Workers World Party (WWP). Pay attention to what he says in the middle of the clip.

Let Bush and the Pentagon and their puppets (I'm a puppet) know that the people of this country are sick and tired of this [expletive deleted] war.

LET'S BRING THE WAR HOME!!

This is something I want everyone to understand.

He doesn't say let's bring the troops home. They don't support the troops. If they did, we wouldn't be seeing this in Portland:
He said this while he was trying to get everyone to move up to make their numbers look more bloated.

They aren't interested in any victory. They want the terrorists here in this country. If he had his way, he'd pay for a state visit for Bin Laden.

Those five little words say more than any speech ever could. Yet, even though every news outlet known to man was licking their shoes, this wasn't mentioned anywhere. .

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1st year, 1st month, 4th day, Age of the Eagle.

The tide has turned. I'm proud to be an American again.
(This post will remain at the top of the site all day.

Original timestamp 2007.03.20.

00:14)

The commies came, the commies saw,
The commies skulked away, ...

(Read the whole thing .)

Click the image to see the entire Old War Dogs Gathering of Eagles series on one page.
Let us make it clear, we've all come here
To defend our long-dead brothers;
And understand you ain't layin' a hand
On our Wall you leftie mothers.
(Click to listen to the .mp3)
Everything I really needed to know about radicalism, I learned from Monty Python.

SATURDAY, MARCH 17 2007 – The sun rises over the Nation’s Capital, reflecting off a light dusting of snow coating the National Mall. A cold rain had soaked the city the previous day, turning to sleet and then snow in the evening, before finally tapering off. Now the snow is rapidly disappearing under the bright morning sun, but a strong, steady breeze off the river is keeping the wind chill in the low 30s.

The weather may be cold, but things will definitely heat up in Washington before the day is done. Thousands of people from across the nation – some opposed to our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, but many others supporting the troops – are converging on the National Mall. And hundreds of police officers from various jurisdictions will work overtime to keep them peacefully separated.

A few blocks to the north, I emerge from the underground Foggy Bottom Metro station, blinking against the bright sunlight. I’m dressed like a scruffy veteran, sporting a day-old beard, wrinkled clothing, a desert camouflage boonie hat, and a pair of cheap sunglasses. .

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“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft a-gley.

”
“To a Mouse,” by Robert Burns
Yes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The bumbling Becker Brothers, bodacious bemoaning and bellowing of bellicose bromides of betrayal, beseeching bedlam and bilious behavior by bountiful billions of boneheaded, boorish, bothersome and boastful Black Bloc braggarts was bested by barricades bonded by brazen bands of brothers borne of boldness and backbone, belying the bogus belief that America the beautiful, bountiful bastion of bravery was dead.
The Communist front organization, International ANSWER, has spent many months, countless dollars and wasted political capital promoting what became a most momentous flop called “March on the Pentagon.

” And for this day, and this day alone, the Gray Dog gloats. Today, it is ANSWER that proved to be “pathetic.” .

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In my third and final installment, I'll take you to the march itself and share a few more photos.

The march kicked off at least an hour late. The reason for this was obvious: there weren't enough people. The longer the waited, the more the socialists trickled in.

As a matter of fact, if it weren't for the Socialist presence, the peace movement wouldn't have moved anywhere. Add in the global warming crowd and it probably would have been a solo event. I found it quite ironic that the people who care so much about the environment were the ones responsible for all the trash in the streets as people threw down their literature throughout the route.

...

I promised everyone some breaking news with this post. It's not so much breaking anymore because I actually broke it on the Mark Levin radio show last night. I got close a few time to take some pictures but was quickly ushered back to the curb.

At one point I was on the bridge crossing over towards Arlington. As I turned around and started walking back towards the curb, I looked out over the river and noticed the police boats in the water. A passing Metro train on a separate bridge caught my attention.

It was head east away from the Pentagon. This was about 35 minutes into the march - enough time for the lead elements of the march to reach the Pentagon. The train seemed unusually packed, but I didn't pay much attention.

Another train heading west wasn't as full. I kept looking towards the water and about ten minutes later another train headed east. Again, the train was full.

That seemed odd since the Pentagon was a minimal manning due to the march and it being a weekend, but I passed it off and didn't really think anything of it. After awhile, Kit and I remarked at how impressively long the line of marchers was. I quickly turned around and waited for another train to cross the river.

Sure enough, it was full too. ANSWER was repopulating the march by using the Metro to make it appear as if there more people. The media never bothered to report that either.

The whole time I was wondering where all these people were coming from since they weren't there at the start of the march. Their bullpen never filled to capacity and only about 1000 or so people stuck around at the Pentagon to hear the speeches at the end of the march. They either weren't that dedicated enough to stay or there weren't that many people to begin with.

...

The commies came, the commies saw,
The commies skulked away,
A Gathering of Eagles
Just spoiled their Big Red Day.
The ANSWER Coalition,
Led by Head Red Brian Becker,
Declined to find out if these birds,
Might have a bigger pecker.
Our eagles gathered by the Wall,
Their talons well extended,
Standing strong and standing tall,
Their war dead well defended.

With eagle eyes they watched
The rats swarm Sheehan’s feet,
Pink mice, their march so botched,
These pinkos squeaked defeat.
A thing we all must understand,
Even though they always lose,
The Reds among us in this land,
Are the darlings of the news.
Their claims to serve the masses,
May bring the media’s attraction,
But these pinkos lose their asses,
When it comes to real-life action.

Fly high you Eagles, soar, from your lofty, special station,
Know this is true forever more; you’ve the blessing of your nation.
This Is The Dawning Of The Age Of The Eagle. Aquarius can kiss my ass.

(This post will remain at the top of the site all day. Original timestamp 2007.03.

19.00:29)

Click the image to see the entire Old War Dogs Gathering of Eagles series on one page.
Let us make it clear, we've all come here
To defend our long-dead brothers;
And understand you ain't layin' a hand
On our Wall you leftie mothers.
(Click to listen to the .mp3)

In every life there are moments that define us.

They tell us in no uncertain terms who we are, what we believe in our souls, and what we are willing to die for.
For those of us who have worn the uniform of our great nation, these moments have stirred in our hearts before–often misunderstood by those who could never understand what it means to pledge your very life to protect another.
But even more rare is the moment that lets us define ourselves, that lets us show the world who we are, what we believe in our souls…and what we are still willing to die for.

March 17, 2007 will be remembered as one of those moments. ..

.

Do , won't you?
Yesterday, St.

Patrick’s Day 2007, a group of ordinary patriots, known nobly as The Gathering of Eagles, achieved something no one else ever could.
Ragtag by nature, membership includes the wounded, both walking and in wheelchairs, the gratefully and proudly ageing and the living-with-the-memory-of-lost-loved ones, brokenhearted. Some lie awake nights worrying about loved ones still in harm’s way, but the one human emotion missing from Gathering of Eagle members is disillusion.

All because if there was any chance the touted anti-war protesters were going to desecrate war memorials, then The Gathering of Eagles members were going to be there–no matter from how far away they had to come, no matter in what shape March 17 was to find them in...

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Even though the counter protest was to be resoundingly successful, only snippets of what took place in Washington was to flicker briefly from yesterday’s suppertime news.
But ‘These Colors Don’t Run’, and this is what the troop-loving Move America Forward and the Gathering of Eagles accomplished against all odds.

The hundreds of thousands the anti-war movement promised did not descend on the nation’s capital to mark a 40th anniversary destined never be forgotten. They numbered only in the thousands–and part of those thousands included the less protest savvy Other Side! Indeed, Fox News reported that the crowd totaled several thousand with as many from The Gathering of Eagles as from the anti-war crowd.

Jane Fonda was a no show. Not being able to count on Al Gore’s global warming, perhaps she thought she’d get her tinted feathers wet.
Big-talking Hollywood celebrities left Cindy Sheehan out in the cold on her own.

Yesterday’s sea change was bound to usher in a new chapter in history. The anti-war protesters were in Washington trying to sustain a 40-year-old memory with tired, old chants like the standby “Impeach Bush” one.
The Gathering of Eagles was in Washington to protect war memorials erected to honor the fallen and in a symbolic show of love for all living troops in harm’s way.

...

When history is written, March 17th, 2007 will at long last eclipse March 17, 1967, as the day when soldiers in faraway Iraq and Afghanistan knew for certain, no matter what real time saw them doing, love and respect await their safe return. The day when it was proven to a watching world that Washington war memorials stand for what they always stood for, time immemorial, the day when the graves of fallen American soldiers the world were warmer.
As those who were there know, the reporting by the mainstream media on the Gathering of Eagles has been mostly ficticious and at times downright laughable.

For the record, here are the leading print media outlets’ reporting on our numbers. ..

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As promised, our full video report on The Gathering of Eagles:
Many highlights there, but take special note of the face-off at the 6:00 minute mark. As you can see, we spent most of the day covering the march on the Eagles' side of the fence.

Why? Because almost all of the news camera crews we spotted--the ones that bothered to show up, that is--gathered around Cindy Sheehan and the anti-war freak show and then left. We didn't see any of them covering the long lines of Eagles waiting to get through security to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

Didn't see them covering the speeches and performances by the vets and pro-military activists. Reporters mingled comfortably on the moonbat side, except to shoot drive-by photos casting pro-troops counterprotesters in a negative light. Bloggers continue to rip old media whitewashing of the historic event:
This may mark the beginning of the end of mainstream America's complacency in the face of a vastly outnumbered but vocal (and overreported) antiwar movement whose platform spells disaster for the United States and Iraq.

Never again will America's brave warriors and their cause be abandoned and the people our country has pledged to liberate be left to perish at the hands of tyrants. Those days are most definitely over.
Michelle and I spent Saturday morning among patriots and moonbats.

Here are a few of the things we saw. ..

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There are lots more where that came from. .

Attached are some images you can use with my report [ -- BF], if you wish.

provoking is of one of the moonbats (with the yellow thing on his back) who came across the street to deliberately walk down the line of vets with his big sign, screaming at them and trying to get someone to hit him. Everybody stayed in amazing control, and finally the cops made the jerk go back across the street.

After that they stopped looking at the vets, and in watching you see every single cop is looking only at the antiwar side.

More images in a bit..

.

Del
A montage of the antiwar menagerie of signs, kind of lets you know who is involved.
I just posted Old War Dog Arch Arthur's After Action Report .

You'll enjoy it.
Michael in MI has a great Go read these GoE posts roundup . Don't miss it.

The Big Dog's post is also quite worth a visit.
Arch Arthur: "Protesters, for, against war, face off" Another letter to the editor about biased media coverage of the Gathering of Eagles, this one from our next-to-newest Old War Dog:
The piece you published in Sunday's Birmingham News (page 9a) was inaccurate. I realize that this is an LA Times piece, but the Birmingham News printed it.

The anti-war demonstrators amassed on the North side of the Lincoln Memorial chanting demands for peace now. The counter-protesters, fewer in number but no less vocal, gathered on the East side of the Vietnam Wall and shouted political taunts - many laced with obscenities.
Factual error #1: The entire Lincoln Memorial was occupied by the .

In addition to the Vietnam Wall, GoE held the mall from the Independence Ave on the South to Constitution Ave on the North and from Henry Bacon Drive on the West to 17th Street on the East. GoE also protected the WWII and Korean War Memorials from anti-war protesters who threatened to deface again them as they had on 17 January 2007. Act Now to Stop War and End Racism ( ) was confined to a small area bounded by Henry Bacon Drive, 23rd Street, Constitution Ave and the Lincoln Circle.

Factual error #2: ANSWER began the political taunting using loudspeakers to blast their very offensive anti-American propaganda at the GoE. They also flew two American flags upside down and carried red communist banners and Che posters. ANSWER made the first use of profanity.

[Swear at a sailor do not be surprised if he swears back.]
Factual error #3: The National Park Service had helicopters circling the area all day taking ariel photographs. According to their preliminary estimates, GoE had 30,000 demonstrators while ANSWER fielded 5,000 to 10,000.

Fewer in number is just wrong. I know I was there at the Lincoln Memorial and I have photographs and video.
17 March 2007 marked a sea change in political demonstrations.

The leftist have, for the past 40 years, used violent, destructive, street demonstrations to advance their political agenda. Masked, rock throwing protesters faced little opposition - usually outnumbered riot police or National Guard troops with restrictive rules of engagement. The radical left funds these protests, providing transportation, meals and lodging paid by groups such as George Soros' MoveOn.

org. Their political opponents have resisted manning the barricades.
Saturday, all of that changed.

With only six weeks of preparation and zero funding, GoE asked for nonpartisan, ex-military volunteers to protect the Vietnam Wall. The response was overwhelming. Veterans' groups including Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Military Order of the Purple Heart and Rolling Thunder responded with boots on the ground.

The National Park Police granted GoE permits to assemble on the monuments, denying ANSWER the opportunity to vandalize. The anti-war demonstrators were intimidated. They faced men who went to Vietnam and fought honorably rather than running to Canada or Oxford to avoid serving their country.

GoE is a true grass roots movement. 30,000 people paid their own way to Washington DC from as far away as California. For the first time, violent demonstrators met a trained, disciplined and determined force.

They will meet that force again and again. I was proud to stand with this 30,000.
ANSWER will never again go unanswered.

Arch S. Arthur,
Major USAF (retired)
Maylene, AL
This is a letter to the editor of the Washington Post, with absolutely wonderful information on the leaders of the antiwar peaceniks. Everyone in the country should know who these people really are.

Please read this over and pass it on.

Del
Your paper's coverage of the so-called anti-Iraq protest movement seriously failed to identify both the groups involved in leading the demonstration on March 17th, but also failed to identify its leaders whose names either appeared in the WP or on their press releases and websites.
Brian Becker, identified as national coordinator for the Answer Coalition is not identified as a longtime member and leader of the Stalinist Workers World Party , perhaps the top communist party in the US today.

The same goes for other ANSWER spokespersons (over time) including Richard Becker, Steve Hackwell, Leslie Feinberg, Monica Moorehead, Sara Flounders, John Catalinotto, etc. Many of these individuals were identified as members of the WWP as far back at April 1974 in the report The Workers World Party and Its Front Organizations , House Internal Security Committee (HISC) and in an earlier hearing, Revolutionary Activities Directed Toward the Administration of Penal or Correctional Systems, Part 1 , March/May, 1973. Thus WP writer Brigid Schulte's writing in Veterans, Others Denounce Marchers , March 18th, got the chant Workers World traitors must hang!

wrong. It was not a reference to the Communist newspaper , i.e.

Workers World. It was a reference to the WWP as the sponsoring organization of the demonstration, along with a mixed Communist/Maoist coalition known as United for Peace Justice, led by an old Communist Party USA-connect activist, Leslie Cagan, and Revolutionary Communist Party leader, the aging Carl Davidson.
ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is the main peace front for the WWP, which also formed and controlled its predecessor, International Action Center (IAC), the All Peoples Congress, and the Peoples Anti-War Mobilization.

Newer fronts include the Peoples Video Fund, Troops Out Now, Party for Liberation and Socialism, and the various International Tribunals on Panama, Iraq, Haiti, etc.
Ramsay Clark was chosen as the front man either in late 1980 or early 1990, and this, in itself, would make a fascinating story to follow through on, though his support for various communist front groups goes back as far as the 1970's.
Significant information about the WWP and UPJ can be found at and its DiscoveryTheNetwork database, among other on-line sources.

Also, Schulte's attempt to characterize The veterans for peace, including active duty men and women, and guys fresh from Iraq in desert camo ...

as still having the thousand-yard stare, and a battlefield hauntedness was nothing more than pure hype, and garbage. While some may have seen heavy combat, it was of limited time of contact and of a limited in-country time of duration. The stare should belong to my father-in-law who fought his way across the Pacific in WW2 to a place called Iwo Jima, or to the soldiers at the Chosin Reservoir, or to the Battle of Hue, Khe San, An Loc, etc.

This is not to take away from those Iraq veterans protestors who served honorably, but my son fought there and he doesn't have any stare , only a healty respect for life and his fellow soldiers. Neither did the scores of Vietnam veterans I met with and talked to during the Protect the Wall rally. If anyone should have had the thousand-yard stare, it was the guys I met from the Big Red One Division, the 3rd Marine Division, and the 82nd and 173rd Airborne Divisions, among other.

Mike Benge, a former Marine and ex-civilian POW in Vietnam (5 years) and R J Del Vecchio, who was telling us about funny stories about how his wound was treated, didn't stare ; they laughed, they shook hands and shared hugs of respect with fellow vets, and gave my daughter more history lessons on Vietnam in a few hours than you would find in many schools. They were the true Band of Brothers.
Sincerely,
(MF was a MACV-accredited correspondent in So.

Vietnam, Fall 1970)
Saturday was a cold, clear, fine day without much wind. I took the Metro to Foggy Bottom, just up the hill from where the protesters were gathering. A female protester asked me where to get off for the rally.

I told her, Reagan National . These people were a mix of long haired white, black Latino activists wearing berets and impeach Bush t-shirts. A few were carrying homemade signs but most took up signs at the rally point.

They were unattractive and ill-informed, but not physically threatening. I had a short haircut and dressed in black combat boots, black chinos, a black fleece jacket, black windbreaker and black gloves. I wanted to make it obvious that I was not a protester.

The anti-war protest rally was sponsored by ANSWER - a communist socialist group bent on humiliating America. They are well funded by George Soros, who chartered busses, printed signs, and paid the hotel bills for their people. Looking at their signs and listening to their speeches, they were a wide range of very radical groups - open borders, communist party, black panthers, greenpeace, recognize cuba.

You name the left wing group, they were there.
GoE was not well organized and had zero funding. At first, I was a little worried about our chances if the numbers that were being advertised were accurate.

ANSWER was touting 100,000 protesters and GoE had only signed up 900. I had no idea how many Rolling Thunder guys, VFW members, American Legionnaires, of Purple Heart guys would actually show up. Fortunately, all the estimates were wrong.

The Park Police had UH-60s overhead with cameras to document their estimate of 30,000 Pro American Demonstrators and 5,000 -10,000 ANSWER protesters. Several times the speakers said that many of their folks were stuck in the snow storm in the North East. We laughed at them.

The ANSWER crowd was intimidated big time. For the last 40 years the radical left has had the streets to themselves. Their opposition was an undermanned police force or a few National Guardsmen with strict ROE.

They always had numerical superiority. We in the military were prohibited, by law, from participating in a counter protest. This demonstration was very different.

As I was walking down the hill from Foggy Bottom, a GoE guy ahead of me took a Stop The War sign tore it in half and threw it in the trash. There were about 1,000 protesters watching him and one guy said, hey, you can't do that! The GoE guy stopped and asked, What are you going to do about it?

The question was met with silence.
In another incident, five of the unwashed made it around the Lincoln Memorial. They were spotted almost immediately.

Three of these brave souls dropped their signs and ran away, but two continued. The were rather quickly surrounded by big Rolling Thunder guys in their leathers. The bikers stared at the remaining two, who quickly put down their signs, avoided making eye contact and left.

No one raised their voice or touched these young men. The thing young men fear most is intimidation in front of their friends, especially girlfriends. Intimidated they were.

On the ground, there was considerable Pro-American verbal push back. The protesters had the amplified sound system, but GoE had the balls. As the leftist speakers ranted, we cheered USA, USA, USA.

. . When they said something we disagreed with, we shouted them down.

It was good clean fun.
On the ground, it was obvious who had more people. We occupied the wall, the north side of the Lincoln Memorial, the apron west side of the reflecting pond, and the Korean War Memorial.

They had a strip of land between 23rd and Constitution Ave. The mounted police kept the groups apart.
These were big guys, the ones who did not run to Canada or Oxford to avoid serving their country.

The elite leftists are not accustomed to real opposition.

When I left, I walked down the mall to the Washington Monument to the Smithsonian Museum and I could no longer hear the shrill loudspeakers of the ANSWER sound system, but I could clearly hear Gathering of Eagles' voices.

We must continue this real grass roots effort.

Wherever these idiots go, we must go. ANSWER cannot go unanswered.

Arch
Click the images to enlarge them in a new window.

Click the image on the page that takes you to to enlarge them to full size.
You may know him from Mudville, where his story has appeared before. If you don't know him yet, you'll want to meet John Eade, survivor of the Ia Drang, and hear what he has to say about Thermopylae and standing your ground.

John Eade hasn’t seen a war movie in more than 40 years, but he’s thinking about seeing “300.” I kind of get that. There is something about the Spartans’ simple illogical willingness to die at Thermopylae that I suspect speaks across the centuries to a lot of combat veterans.

It is possible to understand how glad they felt about the opportunity that presented itself. But it’s the kind of thing that, if you try to discuss it with people who haven’t experienced it, places you at risk of being considered seriously disturbed.
I still watch war movies, looking for the ones that do it well as a technical matter, though real war ruined war movies for me.

Even in the best, a written, acted script is vaguely offensive, that people who have never done this should attempt to dramatize it. There are maybe a handful that come close to capturing the strange normality of extraordinary events, when death and valor are common, unsurprising occurrences.
Images and dialogue will never convey things like the feeling of lying awake before dawn, when fear shoves its way up and down your esophagus like a fat, filthy rat; or the subdued euphoric feeling as the assault gets underway and you are ready to or the laughter in the midst of combat; or the inexplicable sadness over the death of someone who would have killed you.

The emotions and shock movies try to portray are so often the stock ones, and the wrong ones.
Some movies come close, but struggle to deliver even a small piece of what someone like Eade can convey in a few spoken words. It isn’t the words, it is that thing his words carry, something almost imperceptible that comes across between the words, if you are able to recognize it.

Within its embrace, it becomes completely logical that one should desire, in the company of 299 comrades, to face 250,000 Persians and die.
Eade is in a class with those Spartans. .

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Eade, now in his 60s, with broken body, is still a soldier.

As Eade and I talked about Thermopylae the other night, we talked about the fact that for combat veterans, it is not ancient history. Eade knows what the Spartans knew. .

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Check out that eagle.

He looks annoyed. I probably looked a lot like him today, watching thousands of Soros-funded astroturfed moonbats in their parade of scum and villainy across Washington.
But seeing thousands of patriots, some barely able to walk, many still scarred outside and inside from their heroic efforts to defend our country during conflicts past, took a little of the edge off.

Those patriots found out about the through emails, word of mouth, on , on , here on and michellemalkin.com, all over the place. There was no Soros Santa on our side marketing the march and bussing people in from all over the country.

People drove through ice storms to get there, because they believed it was their duty to support the troops who are putting their lives on the line every single day to defend us. If you were there, you were noticed. March 17, 2007 was a day that will go down as the first day that patriots decided to answer ANSWER man for man and woman for woman.

Cindy Sheehan and Jane Fonda and the anti-America chorus didn’t monopolize the day. Veterans, bikers, and moms and dads and kids wouldn’t let them. Not anymore.

It was a historic day. ..

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We did it once and we can do it again. And again.

It's time to decide we're mad as hell and we ain't gonna take it any more. If we don't this country's headed straight to Hell. We have to care enough to save it.

[Yes I realize I'm using we rather generously. I sat on my ass in front of a PC, waiting for my next Disability check, telling everyone else to Be there! Maybe the reader will grant a sick old vet credit for caring enough to do that.

I'd have been there if I could have. I'd like to believe there was at least one person at the Gathering who wouldn't have been if not for my efforts. If there was it was worth every second I put into it.

]
which I linked to last night, has been updated big time. (Thanks for the link, Michelle. Luv ya.

Thanks for helping spread the word and for showing up yourself.) .

(Kit?

Heidi? I can't tell.)
What an outstanding day!

The Eagles soared!
You should be very proud of your fellow veterans, families, and supporters. There’s so much to tell, and we encourage you to post your experiences in the the comments.

In the meantime, two items of business: 1) we have a gallery open for you to upload your digital photos to the website. That way you can share your photos with others. See the tab in the top right corner of the site.

2) the National Parks Service called with their official estimate of the Eagle turn-out today…
Fox News reported today that the anti-war protesters had significantly less than they expected. However, they are erroneously reporting that the Eagles were there in “equal numbers”. The truth is that we outnumbered them by at least three to one!

Well, I went to the Gathering of Eagles event, but only to cover it from a reporter's standpoint. I wanted to be there, take pictures, and observe and then compare my observations with how the event gets portrayed in the media. I came to some interesting, though not entirely surprising, conclusions.

But, let me back up. ..

.
My first observation was that there were a LOT of flags over at the Gathering of Eagles bullpen . There is a lot of love for those colors and this country.

Patriotism oozed out of and spread throughout the mall. Everyone got out of the way and yelled to make a hole (move out of the way) whenever an injured vet was wheeled through. And .

It was difficult walking in there without stepping on someone's toes. The majority of the people there were Vietnam Vets and their reasons for being there were similar from person to person: We're going to ensure that our troops are treated with the respect missing when we returned from Vietnam. They refuse to let it happen again.

Everyone was united with one goal - Victory!
Skye and I decided to walk down to the other side to see what they were up to. The first thing that caught my was this: .

..
has a great round-up on the Gathering of Eagles counterprotest yesterday in Washington, DC:
The National Park Service estimates that 30,000 counterprotestors lined the streets of DC in response to the organized protests sponsored by International ANSWER and other groups.

Janet from did a great phone-in interview with us on the NARN, which should be podcasted by tomorrow at . Be sure to read her reports on the GoE effort, too. And revels in the retrosexuality on display by the GoE.

As war protesters marched toward Arlington Memorial Bridge en route to the Pentagon yesterday, they were flanked by long lines of military veterans and others who stood in solidarity with U.S. troops and the Bush administration's cause in Iraq.

Many booed loudly as the protesters passed, turned their backs to them or yelled, If you don't like America, get out! ..

.
It seems the demise of support for the war in Iraq has been somewhat exaggerated. Be sure to read all of the links in Michelle's post.

Don't miss Smash's posts and . I'm sure he'll have more later.
Aside from their stupid choice of vet pictures al-WaPo's GoE coverage ain't half bad.

Check it out. (H/T: Jules)
I guess the weather was a little nicer in Tucson but the atmosphere was about the same. Don't miss at Speed of Thought.

When we were last reading, I was heading back over to the protester side to do a couple of interviews. Since this was supposedly an anti-war march, I decided that I would get some interviews with those who didn't quite seem realize that it was, in fact, an anti-war march. Some had other agendas.

I'll start with the interview that, unfortunately, I forgot to record. ..

.
There were antiwar demonstrations in a number of cities yesterday, with the largest one in Washington, D.C.

There was also a sizable counter-protest in Washington, sponsored by and other pro-military groups. Generally speaking, the news coverage of the demonstrations that I've seen hasn't been too bad.
Reading between the lines, you can deduce that the antiwar turnout was disappointing:

Police no longer give official estimates but said privately that perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 anti-war demonstrators marched, with a smaller but still sizable number of counterprotesters also out in force.

An hour into the three-hour Pentagon rally, with the temperature near freezing, protesters had peeled away to a point where fewer than 1,000 were left.

Some participants dispute the claim that the antiwar protesters were more numerous; the Gathering of Eagles site estimates that there were 30,000 pro-military demonstrators in Washington.
This account is interesting, once you get past the clearly low-ball assertion that several hundred pro-war demonstrators turned out.

The Times acknowledges with unusual frankness the far-left sponsorship of the antiwar rally:

Saturday’s march was organized by the Answer Coalition — named for Act Now to Stop War and End Racism — an organization that was initially associated with the Workers World Party and now affiliated with a breakaway faction of that party called the Party for Socialism and Liberation. ..

.

Socialism is dead, but a tiny remnant of holdouts didn't get the memo, and they are running the antiwar movement.
has a great roundup of the day's events.

Like Michelle, Michael Fumento was at the D.C. rally and has posted his photos .

“Say what you have to say. Not what you ought.” – Henry David Thoreau
.

.. On March 17, 2001, according to National Park Service estimates 30,000 Americans, defenders of freedom past and present, decided it was time to break silence, stand up and speak up in defense of our troops and our country.

What 30,000 Eagles proved is that when you stand up, the jihad sympathizers back down. Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, this group consisting of many Vietnam veterans, outnumbered the anarchists 3 to 1. As always, throughout the history of our nation, men and women such as this step forward to lead when others are reluctant.

They sent a strong message to the America haters and the political establishment in Washington. Emphatically they said no more!
Mr.

President, Americans hunger for the type of candid and courageous leadership shown to us this weekend by the Gathering of Eagles. They have now passed the baton to you, our leader. You have choices to make.

You can either spend the next two years parrying nonsensical attacks from liberals while they decimate your administration or you can put your finger in the collective chest of America’s axis of idiots and call BS on them. ..

.
This post will remain at the top of the site for the remainder of the day. Please scroll down for possible newer content.

Actual timestamp 2007.03.17.

00:02. I know of at least three people who'll be at The Wall with my phone number programmed into their cell phones and they know I'll be anxious to know how things are going, so here's hoping. Click the Eagle to see the entire Old War Dogs Gathering Of Eagles series.

Let us make it clear, we've all come here
To defend our long-dead brothers;
And understand you ain't layin' a hand
On our Wall you leftie mothers.
(Click to listen to the .

mp3)
My feet hit the floor at the absolutely gawdawful (for me; I usually blog till all hours then sleep well into the day) hour of 07:45 CDT. The closest I can come so far to finding any GOE coverage of any sort, or any mention of the moonbat convergence that necessitated GOE, is this at Michelle's, written a couple of hours ago:

Bryan Preston and I are headed down to the Hope to see you there, too. I'll blog when my fingers and connection aren't frozen.

Just got an email from J D Pendry. He says Fox Friends did a segment on the moonbat convergence and The Gathering Of Eagles. Also says he got a call from one of his old troops who estimates there are about 5,000 vets gathered around the wall and says the moonbats are staying well clear of the area so far.

FOX, at least, is giving fairly balanced coverage. I watch very little TV but my sister just had me come and look at what FOX had on. If anything, the good guys may have gotten a little more screen time than the moonbats.

Apparently things have been calm so far, with the moonbats scheduled to set out for the Pentagon in about an hour.
Just got a call from Bob K. (our newest Dog, btw; I just had the pleasure of welcoming him into the pack) who says things have been calm so far and that he thinks J D's 5,000 number is way out of date.

Just heard from The Gray Dog a few minutes ago. He says if anything the good guys have the moonbats outnumbered. Says the estimates he's heard were around 10,000 on each side.

No major incidents of any sort. Getting close to time for the moonbats to move out for their little protest at the Pentagon, well away from our Wall. He says he got to thank Michelle Malkin for showing up but didn't see her headed his way in time to get his camera out of his pocket.

I'll be looking forward to her coverage of the event.
I was grabbing a short nap when The Gray Dog called and haven't checked the news sites or other blogs for a while but I'll do that now.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators and supporters of the U.

S. policy in Iraq shouted at each other Saturday from opposite sides of a street bordering the National Mall as protesters formed a march to the Pentagon to denounce a war entering its fifth year.
The anti-war group carried signs saying U.

S. Out of Iraq Now, Stop Iraq War, No Iran War, Impeach and Illegal Combat. The other side carried signs saying Peace Through Strength, al Qaeda Appeasers On Parade and We Are At War, Liberals Root For the Enemy.

Police on horseback and foot separated the demonstrators, who were on opposite sides of Constitution Avenue in view of the Lincoln Memorial. Barriers also kept them apart. .

..
Police on horses ensured anti-war protesters and counterdemonstrators stayed apart at the staging area.

Several thousand people, many of them service members, rallied in support of the war. They played The Battle Hymn of the Republic; the anti-war crowd danced to Stevie Wonder's Superstition.
Veterans, some from the Rolling Thunder motorcycle group, lined up at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

...

Surprisingly balanced coverage for an AP piece, although it you read the whole thing some slant does come through.
Don't know why FOX isn't giving this more coverage on their web site but they're doing a good job with it on air, including some good pics of the Gathering Of Eagles and Rolling Thunder crowd and the first on-air use I've heard of the words Gathering Of Eagles. Sounds like the day ended with no violence beyond a couple of shoving matches.

I shudder to think how things might have gone if the Eagles and RT hadn't been there in the numbers they were. Sounds like some anarchists got themselves arrested at the Pentagon but nothing major at all happened anywhere near The Wall. Color this Old Dog relieved and very, very grateful to the patriots who made the trip I wasn't up to, and especially to Bob K and The Gray Dog for taking time to call me in the midst of all that was going on.

From CNN.com, would you believe (click the pic to read the article):
R J Del Vecchio called a few minutes ago to let me know things went well. He thinks the patriotic counter-protests may become a regular thing.

I hope he's right. He promised me an After Action Report by email by sometime tomorrow. Watch for it.

[Update: Click .]
It was a breath-taking, historic, and emotional day in Washington, D.C.

You won't know it if you tune in to the usual MSM channels. But new media--bloggers, conservative documentarians, Internet activists, FReepers, citizen journalists, photojournalists, and talk radio hosts--turned out in full force to participate and cover the counter-protest. Thousands upon thousands turned out despite freezing temperatures and hairy travel conditions.

We met bikers who drove up all night from Huntsville, Alabama; a retired NYC firefighter who arrived here at 2am; college students who traveled from Massachusetts; a Vietnam veteran's wife who bought plane tickets at the last minute from San Francisco; and countless participants who arrived as part of Move America Forward's cross-country caravan.
A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles' volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags--while anti-Bush, 9/11 conspiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow Out of Iraq placards.

Several of the vets shouted, Yellow! How appropriate! in between spirited chants of U.

S.A! U.

S.A! While the classless the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists' Che banners and peace pennants.

Why did the Eagles come? One common refrain: Vietnam veterans, some fighting back tears, told us they came to show the kind of support for the troops that they did not receive when the surrender lobby marched on the Pentagon 40 years ago today.
Mission accomplished.

...

Bob Krupienski, our newest pack member, left this as a comment but I'll move it here so it doesn't get overlooked:

What an exciting day. Sorry I only called you once today Bill.
Today was a very emotional on for me.

It was the first time that I had been to the Wall. There were many tears, including my own. There was a GoE determination that We Are Back To Stay .

At the very least, we matched their numbers though I did hear a rumor that FoxNews said we had the punks by 3 to 1. It is really hard for me to say because we were spread out. We had folks at the GoE rally, we had long lines at the Wall, and we had folks along the punks parade route.

My personal feeling is that we had them outnumbered.
I only saw one incident. One of the punks was dragging our flag on the ground.

Of course, our side took exception to that and took the flag away from the punk. Just a little action but justified. The flag is in safe hands now.

Our non-Vet supporters get a big thanks. Behind us and our troops 100%. Our Milbloggers get a big thanks too.

Without them, the word never would have gotten out. I mean, thousands of us got the word in a very short period of time. Oh, got to thank Michelle Malkin and Bryan for being there.

I spent the day with Kim from Rolling Thunder. RT had one heck of a turnout. They were everywhere.

There is a rumor that I will be contacting my local RT chapter about joining. Patriots to the bone.
Got to close this for now.

I have a wake-up call in 6-1/2 hours. Plan to drive back to Chicago in the morning.
I just took a few pictures and I will send them your way when I am home and rested.

Kim, my RT buddy took a lot more and we will get his to you as well.

Sorry brothers, that I wasn’t with you defending the Wall today. Bit far from sunny, warm Encinitas (beach town between San Diego and Camp Pendleton).

Took my almost 7-year old son Jason for a walk on the beach to collect sea shells, then went for pizza. The usual crowd of young, beach-going tatooed’s and a few comparative geezers like me scattered in. Watched TV in the pizza parlor, and someone turned to CSPAN.

Cindy Sheehan came on ranting, as pizza eaters cracked up when one beach youth just up from surfing said Cindy looked worse than Spongebob Squarepants after a bad day. A grayed pony-tail geezer nearby commented that without sex, drugs and rock-‘n-roll during the ‘60’s to blur the senses these protestors looked truly bored at the rants, and that if he wanted to be yelled at that’s what he had a wife for. Probably why the shivering small crowd in D.

C. looked like the fuzz-faced who didn’t yet know better about getting ranted at and angry grandma’s who miss having husbands to rant at. Vietnam vet, who runs the Army surplus store, came in for a slice, asked why the Gathering of Eagles wasn’t being shown, instead of the Cackling, and returned to work.

Jason and I went back to the beach. Made a game of looking for our friend, the funny Spongebob. Had enough of the scary one.

...

Once-a-Marine-always-a-Marine Curt has some great pics and quotes . Fine pup, that one. If he was older I'd try to recruit him as an Old War Dog.

Please consider this part of my post. It's long enough that I'm going to post it separately then link from that post. Del emails:
Well, it’s over now, the assembly areas for the Gathering of Eagles is an empty hillside of churned mud, the antiwar protest field is less muddy but just as empty.

It was a long day, but a good one.
It started for me last night, when I went to visit one of the principal motels for the GOE movement, a Holiday Inn in Ballston, just outside DC. A friend and I walked in the door and were struck immediately with the sight of a couple dozen men in various kinds of clothing and insignia that marked them as Viet Nam veterans.

I saw the name badge of one, a name given to me by a vet who runs a great blog, said hi, and was greeted warmly as a brother. The next few hours we spent meeting more vets, from Florida to California and every place in between, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, some older, some younger, some in good health, some in bad, but all rejoicing to be there, and determined to keep the memorials safe and show support for the troops. We were again, a band of brothers.

That feeling alone was worth the trip.
The first major meeting was a discussion held by a vet who is also a retired cop, with crowd control experience, and who had been in liaison with the Park Police. He explained how carefully they were preparing to keep things safe, that they were our best friends, and that we needed to cooperate with them to the max.

And that above all, we were not to let ourselves be goaded into any sort of violence, even if seriously provoked, since that was exactly what the radicals would like. People were to be designated as marshals, with special identifying shirts, and it would be their job to buffer the rest of us from attacks, and to demonstrate the discipline we have as lawful counter-demonstrators. He reminded everyone that there would be both very sincere and nonviolent demonstrators whom we should not confront, and even regular tourists to whom we should be as courteous and helpful as possible.

The message came through loud and clear, and was accepted fairly well by everyone. (Even those angrier among us who would have welcomed a chance to let an abusive radical find out firsthand what the consequences can be of provoking those who have served the country they love.) It was said again and again by people that after all, we fought for their right to free speech and political expression, whether we like what they say or not.

After all, it is who we are.
The next morning we got on the DC Metro at one of the outlying stations, on the first train of the day, and no sooner did we enter the car than we saw half the people on it were veterans. The sharing in conversation was great, and we were all building enthusiasm for the day to come.

When we got off the Metro, we were several blocks from the Memorial, and as we exited the station, there was another group of vets assembling on the corner. We started together down to the assembly point, and on the way, joined with three other groups of vets and supporters. This was before 8AM, and it was quite chilly, with a nice breeze to help suck the heat from your body.

At the assembly point they were already building a large garden of US flags, and hundreds of people were already there. I got registered with the coordinators to take photos, and was paired with a vet who was to use a video camera to record things while I took regular pictures.
By then the police presence was obvious, numerous officers standing around, motorcycles and police cars parked nearby, and booths had been set up at one end of The Wall for metal detectors, and one-way traffic past The Wall was required so everyone had to get checked before getting near it.

There were also officers at a couple of places along the walk, and many vets making their way along as well, so I felt reassured that the chances of any vandalism had become vanishingly small.
My partner and I then made our first pass through moonbat territory, but hardly anyone was there. They were setting up enormous 12 foot speakers , and various displays of different protest groups, but clearly the main mass of their people had not begun to arrive.

We did note large stockpiles of very nicely preprinted signs, condemning the war and call for impeachment of the President, ready to be handed out. Clearly these people are well funded and very well organized.
We roamed some more, to the Lincoln Monument, always impressive, and the sizeable group of vets there.

Many wore the colors of various groups such as Rolling Thunder, US War Vets, Patriot Guard, Nam Knights, Legion Riders, and dozens of others. Others were, like myself and my partner, just wearing fairly normal clothing with just a badge or two identifying us in some way or another as Vietvets, our brand of service or particular unit, and/or some motto relating to the war or our time there. There was also a smattering of Gulf War and Iraqi vets in the crowd.

There were vets in good health, and others looking older, many with canes now, and some in wheelchairs. A lot of graying and grizzled men, clasping hands and sometimes embracing when they met others, often shivering in the crisp cold air, but shaking it off and smiling to see each other.
In the following hours the crowds grew, and eventually the main line between the protestors and the vets was drawn, right at a point on one side of the Lincoln Memorial, where a street divides the memorial area from the field where the antiwar people had set up the HQ (loudspeakers and all).

Vets lined up on the memorial side, displaying many American flags, POW/MIA flags, and some banners as well. On the other side were many of the printed antiwar signs, but also a mixture of many others, some homemade, some also nicely printed, like the several I saw of Che Guevara, There was a PLO flag, a few “Truth for 9/11” signs (you know, the CIA/Mossad/Martians flew the planes into the towers), a poster calling for Christians to be Christian and renounce war, and some really nice vintage signs, like that oldie-but-goodie “Make Love, Not War”.
The yelling across the street (police were on the median telling people to on their own sides, the vet side had marshals in orange shirts as well) got loud and nasty, and some of the protestors would come across the street to provoke the vets.

I watched and photographed one guy deliberately carry his large homemade protest sign in a walk across the entire length of the vet side, inches away from them, taunting them, clearly looking to have someone throw a punch or grab his sign, but the marshals were telling everyone to stay cool, and the protestor finally reached the end of the line and had to cross back over to his side. Several more protestors moved over towards the vet side, yelling and screaming, only a few vets moved into the street to yell back, and finally the police pushed the protestors back to their side and told them to stay there. I never saw any of the vets give any trouble at all to the police, and it became clear later that this was noticed.

Eventually the police called in reinforcements, eleven mounted officers formed a line at the end of the corridor between the two groups, and riot police put barriers all the way down the whole front of the antiwar side. But the barriers were shorter on the vet side, and every officer on the ground between the two curbs was facing the antiwar side, It was not hard to see who they thought were the real troublemakers.
The chants of USA-USA-USA at times could be heard from the vets, but much of the time the giant speakers on the other side drowned out everything.

I was occasionally walking through that side (had a pullover windbreaker on over my jacket so they didn’t see my VN ribbon or USMC emblem), and it actually hurt my ears to walk past those speakers. People wanted to give me the Socialist newspaper ($1 donation), and other antigovernment publications, but I stayed busy taking pictures of the lifesize red doll of a devil with Bush’s head on the shoulders, and the assorted radical cause banners displayed in several places. There were Quakers there, Moslem activists, old VVAW guys, a motley collection of people and causes only united by their being in opposition to our government.

Some of them reasonably sincere and courteous, but many harshly aggressive.
Meanwhile, there was more sense of having gone through a time machine back to 1970, as the loudspeakers played the old songs, like “War- - What Is It Good For”, and people actually had “Hell No, I Won’t Go” buttons on. Original issue buttons, not reproductions, on people who must have dusted them off from their souvenir drawer to wear them again.

At one point a VVAW guy came up to me and wanted to talk, he recognized me as a vet and wanted to see where I was coming from. We had barely started to speak when a TV crew came over to drag him off for an interview. When he came back I asked him how they came to him rather than anyone else, and he mentioned they had interviewed him at other protests and knew him.

He also said they were foreign press, so I asked from where. Germany.
Hmm, I decided to try something, so I ran after them found them and said to the lady interviewer “Sind Sie Deutsch?

” She, surprised, said yes. So I said “Moechten Sie mit einander altem Soldat sprechen?” (Would you like to speak with another old soldier?

) I figured, how could she say no, how often would she ever get a chance to interview an American vet who would speak German to her? They’d love that in Germany.
But she said that they ‘d just talked to one of us, and I said, yeah, but I am from a different point of view.

She then quickly said “Oh, we have all the interviews we need, I must hurry now”, and she turned and walked away fast.
I say again… what media bias? In my trips through protest areas, I saw at least 6-8 interviewers with TV cameras talking to people.

I was told only two made it to the GOE area, Fox being one of them. Perhaps there’s some meaning there.
The late morning went on, the crowds got thicker, the GOE hillside filled up and the many feet turned the soft ground into a monster mud pit in places.

There were some good presentations, good music, and that feeling of unity and warmth that made up for the cold breeze. (Well, almost!)
Guard groups of vets formed at the two entrances to the GOE site, and no one with an antiwar banner was allowed in.

There were minor scuffles when some protest types tried to push in, usually their signs were trashed and they found themselves facing a solid wall of bodies that would not let them pass. And they went away, yelling nasty things. I saw one young woman slide past the first rank of guards, then start screaming at everyone, get barred from further travel inward by a line of men, and when she kept up her yelling, the police came in, she abused them, and wound up on the ground outside the gate.

(A lot of smiling and chuckling at that point.) But no vet touched her.