The Portland Protests: Veterans aren’t special—the oath they swear is

The video of my Naval Academy classmate, Chris David, beaten by federal police last month in Portland, shook me. Like bad guys from a straight-to-DVD movie, cowardly officers attacked a peaceful American exercising his Constitutionally-guaranteed right to protest. David stood unyielding, bearing the blows, earning the nickname 'Captain Portland' for his almost superhuman resistance.

Ironically, as police obscured their identity, David wore his Naval Academy sweatshirt for ease of identification, as a veteran. As if the word 'Navy,' written boldly across his chest might act as a shield, like Superman's 'S' or Captain America's star. As someone who's gotten out of countless tickets by virtue of the Marine Corps sticker on my car, I'd shared the same illusion: My veteran status somehow made me special.

David and I reported aboard the Naval Academy to become midshipmen in July, 1984. After the shearing, the uniform issue and the tearful goodbyes, we swore an Oath:

'I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic…'

By swearing allegiance to the Constitution and not an individual, such as the president, we bound ourselves only to the American people. Despite the nobility (or naivety) of David's mission — to remind federal officers of their Oath to the Constitution, his presence at the protest came as a surprise for many Americans who'd dismissed protestors as nothing more than 'lawless hooligans.'

Yet David, and our class, served the American people faithfully as Navy and Marine Corps officers, unhesitatingly laying our collective asses on the line. We've got the scars, both physical and mental—and disability ratings as proof. Because yes, we believe in America.

So it shouldn't come as a surprise that David was at the protest. David, along with brother and sister veterans, were there to support not only one another, but to defend the Constitution, and by extension, the American people. It's what we swore to do. Current leadership may possess the law, but not the will to resist an old Marine, soldier, sailor, airman or Coast Guardsman who swore that Oath. Because it's the Oath that makes us special. Just ask 'Captain Portland.'

Brian O'Hare is a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, former Marine Corps officer and disabled combat veteran. He's a former Editor-at-Large for 'MovieMaker' magazine and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. Brian's fiction has appeared in 'War, Literature and the Arts', 'Liar's League, London', 'Fresh.ink', 'The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature' and the 'Santa Fe Writers Project'. He currently lives in Los Angeles. You can follow him on Instagram/Twitter @bohare13x.

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