Memorial Day visit interrupte​d for a photo op...

Today is Memorial Day and I went to the Vietnam Memorial and something happened there that upset me greatly and I want to pass it on.

For over 15 years I had been going with my dear Marine buddy, Larry Cullen. Since he passed away last year and was interned at Arlington Cemetery, I went this year accompanied by my grandson, Cameron. I had my list of Recon Marines, school classmates, and Larry's fallen buddies to visit but, as we got close to the area of the National Mall where the Wall is located, we saw huge white tents. We also saw barricades all along Constitution Ave and for a couple blocks in each direction from the Wall. They even closed down all of Constitution Av from the Lincoln Memorial all the way to the WW-II Memorial and there was a virtual army of uniformed and plain-clothes security everywhere.

The biggest tent was right at the west end of the Wall entrance and there was a covered walkway leading right up to The Wall. It was so close, you couldn't get to the Wall on that side so, my grandson and I went all the way around to the eastern entrance to the Wall and walked down along the Wall to the first of my names and I began telling my grandson about my buddies and how each one died. In short order, a guy in a dark suit and earpiece in his ear told us we had to leave as it was 0730 and they were closing Memorial until at least 1400 so the President could drop by. I asked if he was serious and he assured me he was. We and all the other veterans and families were forced to leave and it was locked down.

The Vietnam Memorial is the most visited site on the entire National Mall. Memorial Day has more visitors to the Vietnam Memorial than almost any other day. Even at the rather early hour Cameron and I were there, there were a lot of veterans and family members down there. In the midst of all that, Obama decides to close it for over seven hours just so he can roll by for 30 minutes in the afternoon for a campaign appearance with Democrats, supporters, and campaign donors? This is an incredulously arrogant, egotistical, and inconsiderate thing to do. What in hell was Obama thinking?

Hey President Obama: Since you ran me (and all the other veterans and family members) out of the Memorial before we finished our business there, how about doing me a favor. If you can take a short break from all the grippin', grinnin', posin' and pontificatin', how about taking a minute or two to stop by and say hello to my fellow Recon Marines and other classmates on the Wall. I suspect you'll be too busy with photo ops, campaigning, and stroking donors to be troubled with a couple minutes doing what the Memorial was built for but, just in case, here's a list so you can have your man find them and point them out to you. Hope you have a Meaningful Memorial Day.

Joseph J. JONES; 53-W-02
Sherwood David Kreis, 42-W-40
Dale Kagebein, 34-W-50
Jerry Bock, 25-W-95
Larry Daniels, 09-E- 66
Joe Mack Kemp, 09-E-69
Rhonda L. Raglan, 09-E-70
Robert L. Studards, 09-E-71
Jose D. Flores, 09-E-74
Arthur Willie Greene, 14-E-56
Eric Barnes, 17-E-41
Godfried Blankenship, 17-E-48
Michael Ray Smith, 19-E-113
Ervin Lovell, 19-E-120
William D. Martin, 25-E- 87
Michael L. Laporte, 26-E-1
Ronald Frederick Kitzke, 32-E-76
Charles Harris, 34-E-48
Robert Tracy, 34-E-72
Michael G. Murdock, 36-E-57

H/T Shelly