Anti-war Memorial Day march tests veterans’ patience

anti-war Memorial – Dozens gathered Monday in Chicago’s Loop at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, urging today’s service members to question overseas decisions while families tied to the military warned that new deployments could land on loved ones again.

When Alejandro Villatoro looked out over the Vietnam War Memorial wall on Chicago’s Riverwalk, the name etched into the stone—more than 3,000 city residents who perished in the war—wasn’t history to him. It was a warning.

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2026, Villatoro—an Army veteran who is 44—stood among dozens gathered in front of the monument. He has been part of Veterans Against War’s annual protests since joining the group in 2007, after being deployed to Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011.

He said current service members should “question their oath. the position they’re in. and the decisions they’re making in other countries.” To Villatoro. the protests have always been rooted in lived experience. including earlier moments when protesters reenacted earlier dissent. During the 2012 NATO summit in Chicago, Villatoro and others reenacted a 1971 Vietnam protest in which soldiers threw away their medals. He described throwing his “War on Terrorism” medal. along with NATO medals earned for participating in the invasion of Iraq and war in Afghanistan. toward the McCormick Place convention center fence where the summit was held.

Now, he said he sees a mirror of his own deployments after U.S. military involvement in Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, among other places. He pointed to U.S. actions involving Cuba, saying the U.S. has indicted former Cuban President Raúl Castro on murder charges and that a U.S. blockade of fuel and other goods has caused widespread blackouts and food shortages in Cuba as war continues on the other side of the globe in Iran.

“These are billionaire wars,” Villatoro said. “It’s heartbreaking, it’s stressful. It fills me with anxiety. … One day this violence will reach home.”

Not far from him, Sgt. Kayla Harris—an 8-year Army National Guard veteran—stood with her family’s history in mind. She told the crowd she was the first person in her family to serve in the military since her grandfather was drafted for the Vietnam War. She also spoke about the recent death of her grandfather. describing his illnesses as stemming from his exposure to the chemical weapon “Agent Orange.”.

Harris asked people to bring “anger and resistance” to the joy people typically associate with barbecues on Memorial Day. She urged the crowd to remember the innocent civilians killed in every war as she addressed what she described as profits she says drive decision-making.

“I don’t want more dead people to be added to some list for the profits of the upper class who will never have to see a battlefield. ” Harris said. “The military industrial complex is still the same, so we will continue to show up until there is no war. Whenever you get the inclination to thank us for our service, follow us into the streets instead.”.

Her message landed in the presence of another mother who didn’t share the same last name. but shared the same unease. Abbey Harris. the mother of an Illinois National Guardsman who isn’t related to Kayla. agreed with the central point: Memorial Day should not be treated as a simple pause from the consequences of war.

Abbey Harris. a member of Indivisible Ogle County. traveled more than 90 miles to support an Air Force veteran—one of her group’s members—who was attending the ceremony. She said Memorial Day makes her think of “all the people who have fought and died for the rights that are being taken away from us. ” and she said she couldn’t imagine a more meaningful way to mark the holiday than to speak out against war and “atrocities being committed in our names.”.

Abbey Harris said her grandfather was a World War II veteran. and she felt that her son’s enlistment in the Illinois National Guard carried the weight of following in footsteps. She described how his experience began during a moment when President Donald Trump threatened to send units of the military branch into the city. She said she worries about what her son could be asked to do because of that threat and because of the ongoing war in Iran.

“I’m very proud of his choice to serve our country but I’m very fearful he’ll be called up to fight in these unnecessary wars or given illegal orders,” Abbey Harris said. “It’s very emotional. It’s a very scary time to have a loved one in or to be serving in the military.”

The crowd’s overlap—veterans who have turned medals into symbols of protest and families who say they’re bracing for orders they can’t control—gave the afternoon a particular kind of tension. Memorial Day. with its ceremonies and gratitude. was also being used to press a different memory forward: the names on the wall. the costs of past deployments. and the fear that today’s service could become tomorrow’s list.

Memorial Day anti-war protest Vietnam Veterans Memorial Chicago Loop Veterans Against War Alejandro Villatoro Kayla Harris Agent Orange Indivisible Ogle County Illinois National Guard war protests