In June 1932 a small band of World War One Veterans calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force or BEF started gathering in Washington to protest Congress' delay in the payment of their War Bonds they were promised. By mid August their numbers had grown to between 15,000 and 24,00 depending on the source as more and more Veterans and their families gathered in Washington demanding that they be paid.
On August 28.1932 President Hoover ordered General Douglas Macarthur to evict the Veterans. Macarthur ordered then Majors George Patton and Dwight Eisenhower to mobilize the Federal troops out of Fort Myers, Virginia.
At 4:00 that afternoon Major Patton ordered the Calvary to charge the unarmed veterans and their families. Killing and wounding many of the marchers as well as a few by standers, one of whom was a United States Senator. As the day progressed into night the Army attacked the Veterans main encampment with small arms, bayonets, machineguns and tanks. In all it is reported that some 1,600 people, mostly woman and children were killed in the daylong struggle. Nobody knows for sure the exact number as there were those who had escapped the city during the fighting and who died of their injuries while on the roads heading back to their homes.
By the following morning some 2,400 people were herded into cattle cars and were taken down to the Florida Everglades. There they were separated into small groups of 50's. The women and children were lined up first as the Veterans were lined up along the tracks behind a machinegun that Patton had ordered to be set up on the tracks pointing out over the glades.
Patton gave a speech about patriotism calling them all traitors as the first group of women and children were forced to wade out into the swamp and to stand in front of a machinegun. He continued his speech until the last of the women and children in the first group had entered the swamp and were lined up in front of the machinegun. Then Major Patton gave the order to fire and the first group fell lifeless into the swamp. Then the next group of women and children were marched out into the swamp where they too were gunned down by the machinegun. This continued one group at a time while the Veterans were forced to watch as their wives and children were executed by the soldiers.
When the last group of women and children had been executed the Veterans began singing patriotic songs as they marched out into the swamp. Tripping over the lifeless bodies of their loved one which were floating in the water, they continued singing until the last Veteran's lifeless body splashed into the mixture of blood, mud, and swamp water. It is said that the gators ate very well that day as the soldiers tore up the tracks and left the area.
This account of what happened to America's World War I Veterans is true and as accurate as is possible. The official story about what happened to the Veterans and their families that were forced into the boxcars with Federal Troops perched on top of them differs greatly from how it was told to us by eyewitnesses just prior to their deaths in 1990. The United States Government would like people to believe that they were shipped across the country looking for a new home and eventually lost some where in the vastness of what is America.
The fact remains that America's Veterans are the only group of American citizens ever gunned down and killed by Federal Troops for marching on Washington, D.C.. The KK held rallies in Washington where they would wear their hoods and ride their horses through the city. The Black Americans camped out in Washington for months in the 60s demanding their Civil Rights. Every other minority has held demonstrations or protests in Washington without anyone being gunned down by Federal Troops including the Anti War Protesters protesting World War I, World War II, the War in Korea and the War in Vietnam. Only America's pride, her Veterans, have been gunned down for demanding that which they were promised by the Congress of the United States.
For those interested in verification of the events of the 1932 Veterans March on D. C. check out "The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America 1932-1972" by William Manchester.
