What Veterans Day looks like for some

Vets among those arrested in Iraq war protest during City Hall event

BOSTON. Eighteen anti-war protesters were arrested yesterday afternoon on City Hall Plaza after refusing to end a silent demonstration at a Veterans Day celebration.

All 18, part of the Veterans for Peace group that brought up the rear of the parade around Boston Common and into the plaza, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with bandanas in their mouths and signs hanging from their necks, blocking the stage where tributes to veterans were about to start. Many carried  American flags turned upside-down, one of which was wrested from 76-year-old Tony Flaherty, a Vietnam vet who was knocked to the ground in the day’s only show of violence.

The protesters were charged with disturbing a lawful assembly of people, Boston Police said. All said they support their fellow veterans and those in Iraq, but don’t see a need for the struggles overseas.

“Many of us were [in a war] once,” Flaherty said. “We thought there was glory in war. War is death. There’s a loss of mind and a loss of life.”

The group was joined by others with a personal interest in seeing peace abroad and a return of their loved ones.

“I have the greatest respect for all the veterans,” said Sarah Tyler, whose 28-year-old son, Ben Brody, is serving with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry in Baghdad. “It’s just very sad that we support all our troops, and then all this stuff you hear from the Bush administration is untrue.”

The intensity of the demonstrations was quickly diminished when the Star Spangled Banner was sung, after which the tributes finally began. Robert Casey, 66, of Melrose, enjoyed the festivities with his wife, unfazed by the protests.

“It was the same in [1966],” said Casey, who served in Vietnam for nearly a year. “When we went out, people were cheering us. When we came back, it was a whole lot different.”