Veterans Storm National WWII Memorial Despite Barricades

(Video produced by MRCTV and CNSNews.com)

World War II Veterans participating in annual Honor Flight tours of the National WWII Monument were undaunted by the government shutdown, tearing down the barricades to get to the site. MRCTV reporter Dan Joseph was on hand to interview members of congress and veterans who visited the monument today. See the exclusive video from CNSNews.com and MRCTV above.

Joseph interviewed Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman at the site, who explained what happened. The congresswoman explains that she was on her morning walk when she learned that Honor Flight participants were being prevented from viewing the memorial. Bachmann and other members of congress took action then and assisted in taking down the barriers to allow the veterans access to their memorial, she said.

“You have people here between 84 to 99 years old who can’t stand in the hot sun very long,” Bachmann explained. “So members of congress came here with a scissors and cut the police tape.”

“You have a tiny window of opportunity for these veterans to visit their memorial,” said Bachmann, “So when members of congress heard the World War II vets were being prevented from coming, they said ‘Nuts!’ to that! You’re going to let these people in!”

Republican Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas was also there and spoke to Joseph about what was happening.

“These are guys who were not stopped by Nazis, Fascists, Axis Powers, Kamikazes; these guys made it through all of that!” said Gohmert. “And this is their memorial.”

Gohmert went on to say that because of the shutdown he understood why the fountain pumps would be shut down, but said too that a shutdown ought not affect the visitation of an open air memorial such as this.

Veterans speaking to Joseph, when asked about who it was who took down the barricades credited their representative Steve King of Iowa for the act that allowed them access to the memorial.

An apologetic looking park ranger explained the situation to Joseph and stated that the Park Police were carefully considering what to do next.

Kudos to the people of MRCTV and CNSNews.com for producing this video.