The Gathering Of Eagles – Report

Curt

17 years ago

From all accounts it appears the Gathering of Eagles was a HUGE success. With many reports coming that the Eagles either matched the nimrod protestor numbers or outnumbered them. Many bloggers were lucky enough to attend the Gathering and had plenty of pictures up. Mike at Mike’s America was a central hub for quite a few of them who called in updates and sent in new pictures. Below is a sampling of the pictures sent in with the first one being one of my favorites.

(Due to the size of the pics you will need to check below the fold to reduce load times)

From Cajun Tiger:

A beautiful sight huh?

More: (via Jeff)

Check out this great sign at the bottom of the picture:

A better look at the sign:

Some more good pic’s from This Ain’t Hell:

Now for the ugly side of this country:

(via Midnight Blue)

Take a look at all the cookie cutter signs that were obviously handed out by some organization. (via Jeff)

Lifelike Pundits has some video up showing the Gathering and the idiots from the left.

With all the pictures comes the intel from the Patriots at the Gathering:

1337hrs EST

Patriots were spread in three different areas; Constitution Gardens, Lincoln Memorial and at the Wall. He reports Constitution Gardens is rated to hold 10,000 and they had the place FILLED! Don’t know if that means they were spread out or packed in though so the Patriots easily had a few thousand for the rally presentation.

The crowd has dispersed to occupy the three FReep locations along the Commie Death March route to the Pentagon and I imagine they will be giving the Moonbats an earfull.

Consider this: nothing like this has ever happened before. The commies have never seen a sizeable opposition to their anti-victory protests now or during Vietnam. That all changed today and I’m not quite sure how they’ll react now that the sleeping giant has been awakened.

That last point is a good one. I can’t recall when, if ever, the lefties have been confronted with such huge numbers to counter their idiocy. As this poster stated, a sleeping giant as awakened.

This report at 1400hrs EST stated Fox News was reporting equal numbers on both sides:

FNC on scene reporter, just said on air, that the Protestors only numbered about 5 thousand, and that the counter protestors (GoE) *also* seemed to be at about 5,000 in numbers, and as such, equal in numbers.

Of course CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN all breathlessly reported about the war protesters speeches while ignoring the speeches of the Patriots. Surprised? Tanker Brothers reported (via email) that they called CSPAN and was told pointblank that they would NOT cover the Gathering:

I called C SPAN from here this morning – I am in Canada – and asked if they are going to cover G of E tomorrow. They said NO!

1445hrs EST

I just got back. Great turnout…much better than I expected given the weather. The Rolling Thunder guys are just wonderful.

Moonbats were not nearly the crowd they expected. They kept making announcements for everyone to go to the front of the park to make a better showing against the "Bush puppets". Put it another way, we were scheduled to be on the ground until 4 after the moonbats left on the march. I was walking back to my car by 1:45. I met a few late arrivals (peaceniks)on my way out and told them it was over already. They were shocked.

1500hrs EST

I just got back from GOE. I don’t know how many of us there were, but there was a crowd of about fifty just blocking one gate into the area, heckling the passing procession of moonbats. Total- probably several thousand that I could see of us.

Saw one minor scuffle due to a moonbat infiltration attempt. A guy I was talking to said a couple of ‘bats broke through, going for the wall, but got taken down.

Now this should really surprise you:

The biggest response Ive heard from the crowd is when this guy said we are "live on Al Jazerra" Wh000! Yay! W000H00!

Brian Brecker of answer.orgy is bragging that they are being broadcast on Al Jazeera. That ought to help ;o) You just can’t make this crap up.

Need anymore proof that these people are traitors to our country?

1548hrs EST

I have two moments:

One was walking up to the Lincoln Memorial through the veteran booths. Needless to say, the Eagles were in force there. There was a couple walking through and the woman said she felt "she was in enemy territory". Hey lady, you are surrounded by people who fought for this company. Exactly WHO is the enemy?

The other was walking back after the march. There were thre very lost looking peaceniks standing in the same spot as the moonbat lady from before the march. Everyone was tense and ready to pounce – until they noticed one of the peaceniks had blood all over his hand. The vets did a 180 and jumped to help them out. It was great – and a truly nice moment. Our vets are STILL fighting for others, even those that don’t agree with them.

1615hrs EST

Just got back home from the event. Was surprised at the large size of the pro-America crowd. We didn’t have an area big enough to congregate so there were pockets of Patriots in several places. I was part of the tunnel of Patriots that the communists had to walk thru to reach their big party. After a few hours of this I walked around and although the communists were in one fair sized group beside the Lincoln Memorial, there were Patriots (Eagles) all over walking around. Mostly guys, but I was happy to see a good deal of women and some young ones on our side.

1815hrs EST

I tried to estimate the protesters that walked thru the Eagles gauntlet at the Lincoln Memorial. Based on the width of the "parade" the rate of march and the time they took to pass by my estimate is about 10,000. I note however that it appeared that 1/3 were there to espouse a variety of liberal agendas (health care for mothers, free the Cuban five, Katrina problems, etc) so there were probably about 6,000 anti war protesters.

The Eagles appeared to be about 2000 at around 1200 when I went from the rally site to the Memorial. While more would have been better the ratio was intimidating as they had to pass thru the "hard faced old men" who showed the same fighting spirit they had as young men in that now distant Asian War. I saw no violence but the moonbats saw that a lot of their fellow citizens do NOT agree with them and will not allow the young men fighting for us in SW Asia to be stabbed in the back the way they were in Vietnam. One of our speakers at the rally made that point ("We have your back"). Sounds like a bumper sticker to me… (GOE… We have your back… stand fast!).

My other impression is of the faith and courage of those who came to DC for the GOE. It was bitter cold… I watch a vet in motorcycle club leather (there were a lot as you can see in some of the posted photos) shake so bad from the cold he could not light a cigarette. There were also a lot walking with canes and several in wheel chairs including a few from Walter Reed or Bethesda who were well cared for. God and Jesus were present among the Eagles and both were acknowledged by men who have leaned on them in battle. The park service police were professional. They enforced good order but seemed happy we were there (overheard from a policeman after the protesters parade… "thank you for defending the Wall"). I am glad I went and proud to have been associated with brothers and sisters who love God, country, and each other in a way that the so-called protesters will never comprehend.

Lastly, if you want a good rundown of the Communist speeches go to Perish The Thought who did an excellent live blog of the idiots.

What a great day for our country. Not only did we show the lefties that yes, there are many here who do believe in this fight and the need to protect this country but we showed the world (via Fox at least).

UPDATE

Just had to post this picture that Wordsmith has up on his blog in his excellent roundup of the protest.

A U.S. Marine, who said he served in Iraq but would not give his name, yells at an anti-war protester. His button shows support for U.S. troops and President Bush.
Marvin Joseph- The Washington Post