IVAW Tower Guard Nov 16-18, 2007
IVAW
Colorado myspace link:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=280077036
IVAW Tower Guard Colorado Springs, Nov. 16-18
News coverage of the IVAW Tower Guard in Acacia Park
Mark
talks with Joe and Garrett and Hank guards
Garrett
talks to a couple about the action and the war
Floyd
rocks the baby to sleep
Jeff,
Joe, and GarrettPhotos below courtesy of Rick Duncan at Colorado Veterans Alliance
Mark
and a supporter 
Mark
calls Sarah from the tower
Garrett
on the phone
Garrett
in the guard tower
Garrett
and Jeff read the Gazette coverage from Friday
Garrett
and Jeff in the tower
Jeff
stands guard 
Pete
and Garrett talk 
Jeff
and Garrett
Mark
and fan
Elizabeth
Spradlin
Mark
and an active duty soldier before deployment
Photos below, courtesey of Eric Verlo
Support
arrives from the peace community
The
crowd chants "Supprt Our Troops....Bring Them Home"
Molly,
Tony, Ed, others
Mark
looks for a better angle
Chanting
Mark
shoots the documentary
Phyllis
across the street
Peter
and Brian on the other corner
Jeff
and his little sugars keep watch
Evan Knappenberger Tower Guard action in DC
Evan Knappenberger at the Washington Monument in DC
Knappenberger day 2
7 other clips from each day of the Tower Guard at the Washington Monument
Evan
on Democracy Now:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/12/1415232&mode=thread&tid=25
Evan photos:
See photos
of the ceremony.
And more photos of Bellingham, Washington
Military
Law Rask Force to fight Stop Loss:
http://www.nlgmltf.org/
Mark Wilkerson interview on filing for CO and going AWOL
GAGzette coverage of the protest
Iraq vets conduct 3-day war protest
Small group is demonstrating in Acacia Park
“Our mission was to win the hearts and minds of the people, and you don’t do that when you’re treating every single one like they’re an insurgent, like they’re a terrorist,” said Wilkerson, 23.
After a year in Iraq with a Fort Hood-based military police unit, the 2002 Widefield High School graduate felt strongly enough that he sought conscientious objector status and, when that was denied, went AWOL. He served five months in a military prison this year.
He is among a small group of Iraq veterans holding a three-day demonstration in Acacia Park in Colorado Springs that began Friday.
With a mock guard tower — to symbolize a guard tower in Iraq because “we all at one point in Iraq pulled tower guard,” Wilkerson said — they hope to draw attention to the fact that not everyone who served there supports the war.
“When I got there they waved flags, then they were giving us angry looks, and then they were throwing rocks and planting IEDs,” said Wilkerson, who got out of a military prison in Oklahoma in July. “I got the impression the Iraqi people don’t want us there.”
The members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a national group, have held demonstrations elsewhere in Colorado, but this weekend’s is their first in Colorado Springs, Wilkerson said.
“In this very all-American, all-military town, there are people who are against the war but support the troops and support the veterans,” said former Marine Capt. Rick Duncan of Colorado Springs.
He served in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, and went back last year. He now runs a veterans advocacy group, the Colorado Veterans Alliance.
Duncan said he came to oppose the war because of how it affected his fellow troops.
“I continuously saw people being sent back into a meat grinder again and again and again,” said Duncan, 30. “I saw people dying and leaving families and distraught loved ones.
“Seeing the degradation of the military, the degradation of the troops. There’s only so much you can take before you have to begin speaking up.”
Friday’s demonstration was politely received by passersby, with some earnest discussion but no shouts aimed at the veterans, Wilkerson said. The group planned to be back at the southwest corner of the park from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. today and Sunday.
They acknowledge theirs is a viewpoint rarely heard, at least publicly, from soldiers.
“I don’t think we’re a minority voice, but I think we’re a minority willing to speak up about it,” Duncan said.
Former Army Spc. Garrett Reppenhagen, sitting atop the tower, said he supported the war when he went to Iraq in February 2004.
“I thought I was going over there to look for weapons of mass destruction and try to get revenge on the people who attacked us on 9/11,” said Reppenhagen, 32, now a Pikes Peak Community College student.
“I really got disenchanted. I was sent to another country to kill a bunch of people who did nothing against Americans and never tried to attack us,” Reppenhagen said.
The Iraq Veterans Against the War advocates an immediate pullout from Iraq. Its members argue that violence occurs because people resent the U.S. troop presence, and say the country will stabilize on its own.
“The people will take some pride in their country when there is no one to hold their hand,” Wilkerson said. “We can say there will be a civil war (if the Americans leave), but there already is one.”