Local veteran joins mother’s war protest

Sharon Springs man flies to Texas to be with group outside Bush ranch

By Jake Palmateer

A Sharon Springs Vietnam veteran has joined Cindy Sheehan and other anti-war activists outside President Bush’s Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Elliott Adams, 58, a member of the national organization Veterans for Peace, flew into Waco on Thursday afternoon to relieve fellow members of the group who are returning to New York City.

Adams said the flight from Dallas-Fort Worth was "a little bumpy" and exiting the plane in the Texas heat was eerily familiar.

"It’s a lot like coming off a plane in ’Nam," Adams said.

He said he arrived at Camp Casey just as a red sun was setting.

"Camp Casey is a spectacular little sight," Adams said on his cell phone.

The flat Texas scrubland in Crawford is filled with fire ants and snakes, Adams said, and vehicles lining the highway near Bush’s ranch stretch into the horizon.

Adams said there were two camps. Camp Casey 1 was in a ditch where Sheehan established herself Aug. 6, and Camp Casey 2 has since been set up on an acre of land loaned by a Bush neighbor who is sympathetic to the protesters.

The camps are named for Sheehan’s 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, who was killed last year in Baghdad.

A Secret Service security checkpoint is set up on the edge of Camp Casey 2 because it borders Bush’s ranch, but other than that, Adams said, the police presence is light. He said the activists have largely been providing their own security.

"We’ve got a good working relationship with (the police)," Adams said.

The core organizers at Camp Casey are members of veterans groups or groups representing families of those killed in Iraq, he said.

"We all know what we are talking about," he said.

Adams, who said he will be taking over as the on-site coordinator for Veterans for Peace, said he was hoping to soon meet Sheehan.

Two Veterans for Peace members from New York City who met Adams at the airport in Waco to escort him to Camp Casey said the peace movement’s momentum seems to be growing every day.

One of the men, George McAnanama, 57, said there was a pervasive sense among those at Camp Casey that they are involved in a historic moment.

"This is a watershed event," said McAnanama, a Vietnam-era Army veteran and vice president of the New York City chapter of Veterans for Peace.

Pete Bronson, 71, who was also at the Waco airport to pick up Adams, said he enlisted in the Navy in 1952 during the Korean War.

"We feel it’s a chance for us to get the message across that there are a large number of people who don’t support this war," Bronson said.

McAnanama said there has been no violence or other negative incidents save for "a few cross words here and there."

"Some of the ranchers may be a little less friendly," McAnanama said.

He said the protesters have been eating well due to cooks recruited from among their ranks, but the Texas heat has taken its toll on some.

"You get a little ripe for a few days," McAnanama said.

There is music at night, he said, and folk singer Joan Baez has recently joined the group.

Bronson said there have been some small counterprotests near Camp Casey, and a larger rally by Bush supporters is planned for Saturday in downtown Crawford.

Adams said he and the others have not definitively heard what the counterprotest was going to be like or how large.

But Adams said he had attended a protest against the Iraq war outside West Point at which counterprotesters were allowed to use the anti-war activists’ microphone.

"I support their right to express themselves, and I will fight for their right to express their opinion," Adams said. "We just have to make sure we respect each other. We believe in the importance of people, whether they’re Americans, whether they’re Iraqis, whether they’re Vietnamese."

Adams said the protesters have been spending their time planning further activism, including a march on Washington, D.C., in late September.

Sheehan has said she will go on a bus tour after her stay at Camp Casey ends Wednesday and eventually wind up at the march in Washington.

Adams said he will be staying for the duration of the encampment and possibly head out with Sheehan on the bus trip.

Until he leaves, Adams said, he will be staying in a tent at the camp.

Adams, who paid for his flight from Albany to Texas, is a former mayor of Sharon Springs and works in the forest management field.

http://www.thedailystar.com/news/st...