Posted on 08/29/2011 6:49:51 PM PDT by kburi
We knew it was coming and planned for it.
For six years and four months of consecutive Friday evenings, the DC Chapter of Free Republic, other groups and individuals successfully challenged Code Pink and their union pawns in front of Walter Reed. After several months, they were forced from the Walter Reed front gates to a location 50 yards down Georgia Ave.
Since June 2005, many Americans have gathered on Friday nights to continue to keep the anti-military forces away and to show support to the wounded warriors and their families.
Tonight, then, was different from all others. Walter Reed will close its gates tomorrow, Saturday, when the last 24 critical care patients are taken by ambulance to Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Twenty FReepers and Lurkers turned out for the final Friday in very good weather. There were no ambulances bringing in the wounded, nor was there a dinner bus for wounded warriors to welcome back.
Many of the cars leaving Walter Reed had supplies or suitcases in the back seats. Soldiers moving to new quarters.
There were a lot of honks and waves from passing cars. This stretch of Georgia Ave will be strangely quiet on Friday nights from now on.
New England Patriot made it even though he is recovering from pneumonia, kudos to him! We were also joined by Elizabeth and Leticia. Elizabeth is the mother of a wounded warrior who is recovering from wounds. We have gotten to know her and her son, and wish both of them the best. Elizabeth’s friend, Leticia, is a counselor for wounded warriors, and has worked at Walter Reed for 30 years.
After securing the flags, signs and banners for the last time, Trooprally thought we should celebrate the final Friday evening with a little champagne which we did. Sensei Ern proclaimed “ Mission Accomplished”.
Tomorrow morning at 6:30 am, Saturday, we will be at Walter Reed to salute the final 24 critical care wounded warriors who are being transported to Bethesda. There will be a separate after action report for the final move.
It’s appropriate to express our great appreciation to all those who have participated with us or have expressed support in after action reports or by email. Along the way we have met many fine Americans who all care about this country and our fine soldiers.
While there are no immediate plans for the future, the DC Chapter of Free Republic will continue to hold Recruiter Appreciation Days, to counter anti-military demonstrations in the DC area and work individually with wounded warriors as volunteers when we can.
Some members of the DC Chapter along with an American Legion Post have been countering an anti -military protest in Olney, Md for almost six years.
Meanwhile, let none of us forget our soldiers and their families. There is still much to do in supporting them.
Let’s do it.
To see After Action Reports beginning in March 2005, please check BufordP’s Walter Reed Freep Archives :
Mr. and Mrs Trooprally, 3D-Joy, CindyTrueSupporter, Fraxinus, Kburi, New England Patriot, RonGKirby, SenseiErn, TammyCat, ToleranceSucksRocks, VictoryNY, Lurkers Bill, Bryan, Jim, Kim and Terry. Visitors Elizabeth and Leticia.
Moonbat News
Four moonbats tonight. Very Quiet. All left promptly at 9 pm.
Removed by the DC Chapter of FRee Republic from the front gates of Walter Reed in January 2006, Code Pink and this union crew never made it back to the front gate of Walter Reed.
They spent the following six years exiled down the block and virtually out of sight.
FOOTNOTES
Laticia, Elizabeth and CindyTrueSupporter
RonGKirby, Kburi and Jim 
Fraxinus and ToleranceSucksRocks
NewEnglandPatriot – Rolling Up the Ranger Flag 
Tomorrow, August 27, 2011, the Final 24 Wounded Warriors
Will Leave Walter Reed Through These Gates
On Their Way To Bethesda
DC PING!
Great job, y’all!
God bless and the many thanks to Trooprally. Heroes all.
Not Michigan-specific, but we live in a mitten, not a cocoon. And this is just very, very cool.
GREAT JOB EVERYONE and THANK YOU !!!
V
It has been my honor to stand with you on trips to DC.
I think of you guys often, especially on fridays
As others have said;
Mission Accomplished.
Thank you all, for fighting the good fight!
I sure wish I could have made it for this one last time..........
Thank you to all who have stood guard outside the Walter Reed Gates for these many years, honoring and serving the service men and women who sacrificed for our freedom.
A special, gigantic THANK YOU to the military personnel and their families for your willingness to serve and sacrifice. May God bless and keep you in His loving arms all the remaining days of your lives.
Thank you!!!
Congratulations to all of you. You have had a positive effect on many people, in and out of the military. It is a great thing that you have accomplished.
WHAT YOU HAVE DONE IS ONE FOR THE HISTORY BOOKS. GOD BLESS YOU ONE AND ALL. YOU ARE HEROES BY ANYONE’S MEASURE. THANK YOU MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY.
If you want off my ping list get over it!
Mission Accomplished!
Thank you - great report!
God bless our troops. And all the faithful who went to Walter Reed on Friday nights to cheer them on.
Thank you all so much for your vigilence. May God Bless you.
Thank you all so much for your vigilence. May God Bless you.
God bless you all.
All of you should be damned proud of what you have done.
We live in a busy, minute to minute world. Everyone has somewhere to be, calendar events to keep track of, family and work commitments, and just plain downtime for relaxing. Many of us have trouble finding time for an event of any kind for several weeks.
We live in a busy world.
In spite of all of this, all of you found time, week after week, month after month, and finally, year after year to keep this commitment you made to yourselves.
One of my favorite works (most likely recognizable to all of you) is a snippet from Thomas Paine’s seminal piece “The Crisis”: “…The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman…”
In many ways, this is such an overused reference, often inappropriately. But I think it applies perfectly to all of you. For more than 6 years, there has been a core group of you that had found a way to get up off the couch, out from in front of the computer, out of work and out of your own personal life to do something that a very small percentage of Americans do: give your money, your energy, and your precious time in support of something that is vitally important to our country and those who serve it.
That something is: Acknowledgment; Gratitude and Respect.
Many of you were of age during the Vietnam War, and those who weren’t understood well what had happened to our servicemen who came home after the war. Too many of us saw what happened to them, and we said nothing. We let it happen. That left a deep impact on many people, the injustice and the unfairness that we saw towards military members whose only crime was to do exactly what their government had asked of them.
For that, they were cursed, spat upon and reviled. To our shame, many of us saw it, but did nothing.
But when our troops were sent once again into harms way, all of you (and many other Americans like you) had sworn that was going to be different this time.
And it was… and is. When our troops come home, they can wear their uniforms proudly wherever they go. They can be proud of their mission, and how they carried it out.
But that did not happen in a vacuum. It happened because people like you had the will to not allow the voices of the traitorous left to be the only voices that were heard in this country. It happened at many levels
We saw it at the national level, when the Swift boat veterans left their comfortable, semi-anonymous lives behind to make their voices heard, derailing the candidacy of John Kerry and saving our country from four years of him as President.
We saw it at the state and community levels, where legislatures supported our troops for the most part, and were generally unwilling to give leftists a platform from which they were the only voice that was being heard by our veterans.
But most of all, we saw it at the individual level.
We saw it in our workplaces, where people proudly organized care packages to send to our troops. We saw it in all of the individual donations that everyday people made towards a wide variety of pro-troop causes, made by people across all walks of life
And we saw it in people like you, who spent their free time standing with signs in front of places like Walter Reed hospital, and we saw it (and heard it) in the cars that drove by and showed us their support.
Of all these things, I do believe it is the actions of people just like you who have made it possible for our troops to come home with their backs straight, and proudly pick up their lives where they left off without the stain or the stigma that the left tried their hardest to impart on them. It was people like you, all of you, that made this possible. You contributed in the best way that you could, and I believe that all of you have the everlasting appreciation and respect from those members of the military who were aware of your mission. It was a mission, and all of you fulfilled it brilliantly.
You should be proud.
So, as Thomas Paine so eloquently stated: “…but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman…” all of you veterans of Walter Reed, who stood out in the hot sun, the pouring rain and the freezing sleet week after week, you stood by it. You stood by it, and you deserve the love and thanks of man or woman. It has been my supreme privilege to have had the opportunity to spend time with all of you and bask in the reflected light of a most worthy cause and effort.
From this man, you have my love and thanks. God Bless all of you.
Thanks for that final Friday night ping, BufordP. Although I only made the WR “vigil” protest a few times, they were among the most rewarding nights ever. You people are the best, second only to the wounded warriors you were supporting. God bless you all.
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