MY GRAMPAP STORMED the CAPITOL!
Okay, well, almost.
Grampap was a World War I Navy vet. After the Armistice he served on gunboats in China and claimed—Grampap was known to embroider a bit—to have sailed with the expedition that recovered the bodies of the ill-fated Polar Bear Brigade from the Soviet Union.
Like all veterans of the Great War, he received a certificate entitling him to a cash bonus on its maturity. Unfortunately, that was in 1945. In the depths of the Depression, that seemed like quite a long way away. In 1932 there arose a national movement among former doughboys for immediate payment. They formed the Bonus Expeditionary Force—later, Bonus Army—and in the late Spring, marched on Washington to present their demands to Congress. Grampap was among them.
On arrival, the vets—-ten thousand strong—built an orderly camp, managed with military discipline, close to the Capitol. In the following weeks they massed in front of each House of Congress when it took up a bill to accelerate payment. It passed in the House, but failed in the Senate. An army intelligence report suggested that frustrated vets might occupy the Capitol itself.
Well, that can’t happen.
Disregarding the instructions of President Hoover, Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur, aided by his able adjutants Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton, led a mixed force of infantry and cavalry, supported by six light tanks, across the river and into the Marchers’ camp. After driving out the vets—and their wives and children—with rifle butts, batons, and the newly invented tear gas, the army set the camp on fire.
In the face of another threatened march, the newly inaugurated FDR set aside twenty-five thousand jobs for vets in the Civilian Conservation Corps. Ultimately, in 1936, Congress acted to pay the Bonus immediately.
Now, I draw no lessons and point out no parallels. But if Douglas fucking MacArthur, Dwight fucking Eisenhower, and George fucking Patton will take up arms against fellow soldiers who even threaten the Capitol, what the hell happened yesterday?
Oh—Grampap? Well, when he got his bonus, he bought a Model T. One night, drunk, he crashed it into a streetcar in Morgantown, West Virginia. Luckily he survived. I guess it all worked out!
