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March 11, 2007
Caravan For U.S. Troops Shows Colors
Military families and supporters in Move Forward America speak at Griffith Park en route to a rally next weekend in Washington, D.C.
LATimes
Kyle Crowley, an 18-year-old Marine, died in Iraq nearly three years ago. Stricken by stress and grief, his father, Mark Crowley, suffered a near-fatal heart attack about 17 months later, on the fourth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The elder Crowley, now 48, a sheet metal worker from the Northern California town of Tracy, wasn't healthy enough to return to work. He's been searching for meaning in his life ever since.
The one thing he's sure of, however, is that he doesn't want his son's life to have been lost in vain. That's why he joined a cross-country caravan of military families and supporters urging the U.S. to support the troops and criticizing politicians and antiwar activists for calling for troop withdrawal from Iraq before the job is done.
"Many have died for these colors," Crowley told supporters at Griffith Park on Friday as he held a U.S. flag. "If you don't support these colors, get the hell out."
The Los Angeles stop was one of two dozen rallies Crowley and others in the Move America Forward caravan will hold as they make their way to Washington, D.C., over the next eight days under the motto "These colors don't run."
About 100 supporters — including many veterans — added several dozen flags of all sizes to the caravan's collection, which the group plans to display in "a giant flag city of red, white and blue patriotism" on the National Mall next weekend.
Move America Forward is protesting the antiwar rallies planned for the fourth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The caravan includes two other California parents — Debra Argel Bastian of Lompoc, whose son died in Iraq, and Debbie Johns of Granite Bay, whose son is serving his third tour there.
Crowley in his view, it's us or them.
"If we don't finish it, they will. If we pull out or can't win, [the terrorists] will make Sept. 11 look like a bar fight. They're radical, and their only meaning is killing innocent people " said Crowley.
A former Army ranger, Crowley said he could shoot an elk at 600 yards with a single shot. He wishes he could trade his own life for his son's — or any of the other 3,000-plus troops who have died.
Posted by Wild Thing at March 11, 2007 12:47 AM
