Veterans Renounce Service Medals at Chicago NATO Summit
Nearly 50 U.S. military veterans gathered at an anti-NATO rally in Chicago on May 20, 2012, and threw their service medals into the street in a dramatic act of protest against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of the veterans wore military uniform shirts over black anti-war t-shirts, and some choked back tears as they explained their reasons for discarding the decorations.
An American flag was folded while a bugle played “Taps,” the melody traditionally performed at military funerals, lending the demonstration a somber, ceremonial quality.
Personal Accounts From the Veterans
Zach LaPorte, a 28-year-old mechanical engineer from Milwaukee who served in Iraq in 2005 and 2006, said the medals were supposed to represent acts of heroism, but he did not feel like a hero and did not believe he deserved them. LaPorte had enlisted in the Army at 19 because he could not afford to stay in college at the time. He said he witnessed civilian casualties and arrests of civilians during what he considered an illegal occupation of a sovereign nation.
A veteran from New York identified only as Jerry stated that he no longer wanted any part of the military system and had chosen human life over war, militarism, and imperialism.
Former U.S. Army Sergeant Alejandro Villatoro, 29, of Chicago, who served during the 2003 Iraq invasion and in Afghanistan in 2011, said he suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression. He threw back three medals: a War on Terrorism medal, an Iraq campaign medal, and a NATO medal from Afghanistan. Before discarding them, he said there was no honor in these wars, only shame.
A Broader Indictment of Post-9/11 Military Policy
Matt Howard, a 29-year-old former Marine who served from 2001 to 2006 and acted as a spokesman for Iraq Veterans Against the War, pointed to the high rate of suicides among returning veterans as evidence of the wars’ human cost. He called the medals representative of failed policies, saying they were not worth the cloth and steel they were printed on.
The veterans had originally hoped to present their medals directly to a NATO representative. The closest they could get was a fence surrounding the McCormick Place convention center, approximately a block from where President Barack Obama and other NATO leaders were meeting. They threw their medals toward the building instead.
The protest took place on the same day that NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen opened the two-day summit by declaring there would be no hasty exit from Afghanistan, a position that stood in stark contrast to the demands of the veterans gathered outside.
