Monument Terrace rally for troops marks 500th Friday

With high humidity and sun beating down Friday afternoon, the commemoration of the 500^th weekly “Support Our Troops” rally at Monument Terrace was a steamy affair, no doubt about it.

But there were no complainers.

After all, it was at least 10 degrees cooler than weather at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. It was not quite as steamy as the jungles of Vietnam, as sweltering as the Arabian desert, or as miserable as freezing half to death in the Ardennes in World War II or on the Korean peninsula. Many of the men and women gathered on Church Street on Friday can tell you firsthand they’ve endured much worse.

“I’m very happy to be here, and I know a lot of guys that would like to change places with me,” said 94-year-old World War II Navy veteran Vincent Alones.

No matter the weather, they’ve been there every Friday since Nov. 30, 2001. Sometimes it’s a small crowd of die-hard supporters. This Friday’s crowd numbered more than 50.

The rallies started as a one-off event to oppose a group opposing the invasion of Afghanistan. The next Friday commemorated Pearl Harbor Day. And they kept coming.

“I would never have predicted it would have been 500 weeks,” said Steve Bozeman, a Vietnam-era Marine and rally organizer. “I would never have predicted it would have been 100 weeks, either.”

Halfway there, though, Bozeman said his attitude had changed. He knew the group was in for many more weeks. The mission overseas had evolved and so had the one at Monument Terrace. The group’s first priority continues to be to support soldiers, but it also has  become its own support group.

“If I die tomorrow, I know daggum well these people are going to be down here,” he said.

Wendy Hoffman has been getting as well as giving. Hoffman has been coming to the rallies off and on for years. With two sons in the service, things took on new meaning when one was injured in Afghanistan last spring. Kevin, a Marine, was a gunner in a vehicle struck by a roadside bomb. It threw him 400 feet from the vehicle. He broke his back, hip and jaw and tore ligaments in his knees. Her other son, who has already served multiple tours in Iraq, was just sent to Afghanistan with the Army.

The 500^th week is bittersweet, she said, especially as a former Vietnam-era teenager.

“If you would have told me there would be a war that lasted longer than Vietnam, I would have said, ‘no,’” she said. “It’s also heartwarming because some of these people who have served in World War II aren’t as mobile as the rest of us are, but they’ve been down here in all kinds of weather. They’ve worked hard to show the support the Vietnam veterans did not get. I’m proud of these people.”

When the rallies started, eight servicemen had been killed in Afghanistan. Today, more than 6,100 service members have been killed in support of the wars there and in Iraq. Over nearly a decade, 27 veterans and other rally regulars have died.

Those regulars range in age from Alones and others in their 90s to War on Terror vets like Rob Schull in their 30s and 20s, to kids, grandkids and great-grandchildren.

Schull, 30, is an Army veteran who served in Iraq in 2007 and 2008. He said he attended his first rally not long after getting out in 2009 and attended regularly for about a year. He comes more sporadically now, he said.

“It was a good surprise when I got back that this is one of many groups who do stuff like this,” he said. “Every time I come down here, it reminds me that there are a lot of people rooting for our military personnel. I appreciate knowing that while I was there, they were doing the same for me.”

Del. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg, presented a House of Delegates resolution signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell recognizing the group. Garrett noted that both Mount Rushmore and the Empire State Building were completed in less time than the rallies have been held.

“The world is different than it was 10 years ago,” he said. “But these men and women have stood steadfast.”