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RECOLLECTIONS: VVAW Anti-War Protest, Washington DC 1971

By Lee Wengrzyn

My buddy was excited when he told me were going to DC to protest the war. Seattle, Washington is a long way from Washington DC. He told me VVAW was paying for the ticket and we had the chance to tell of our experiences in Nam and try and turn some heads in the Capital. And so we did. I didn't measure the success of our mission to march on the Capital until later when my buddy and I were catching the plane to return home to Seattle. I don't know what influence we had on the decision makers to stop the Vietnam insanity. It was cathartic to march in camouflage around the Capital buildings and streets and to meet with members of Congress. To have a chance to express the folly of war from our personal experiences. It was great to sleep on The Mall and see the support of so many people of everyday America and some pretty famous ones too. We threw our medals over the fence and marched in protest through the streets.

Then, the protest over, we went to the airport to board our plane. As my buddy and I entered the catwalk towards the door of the plane, a man dressed in a suit stepped in front of us. He flashed a badge and ID card that I took to be FBI and told us to step aside to let the other passengers board the plane. He frisked us and wrote down our names from the IDs he demanded of us. I asked him why he was doing this and for what purpose and he, not surprisingly, just glared mute in response. Then he told us to go ahead and board our plane. We did and he followed us on and disappeared somewhere in the back of the plane. This was a non-stop flight back to Seattle.

I told my buddy that we must be pretty important for being a couple of E-3s doing our democratic duty to tell the world of the foolishness of war. I guess we did get our point across enough to worry the powers-that-be. I suppose we are in some database in the bowels of government and I really don't care. Our excitement to tell our stories of Vietnam has long been muted by the continuing absurdity of the endless wars we are now in. It looks like we are a lot of protests away from putting an end to the battle for peace and respect.

Lee Wengrzyn is a member of VVAW who lives in Florida.