FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 4, 2026

On the 250th Anniversary of the Nation’s Founding, Over 500 Veterans, Military Members, and Families Marched in Philadelphia for a Country That Takes Care of All Its People

Veterans, active-duty service members, and military families gathered today at Washington Square Park in Philadelphia under the banner “Freedom Over Fascism,” marching against ICE, the occupation of American cities by the National Guard, the war on Iran, and threats to deploy troops at polling sites in November.

PHILADELPHIA — On the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, more than 500 veterans, active-duty military members, and military families gathered in the birthplace of the nation to reject what they called the Trump administration’s fascist vision for the country’s future. The coalition — About Face, 50501 Vets, Veterans For Peace, Common Defense, Military Families Speak Out, Fayetteville Resistance Coalition, and Center on Conscience and War, with the support of Women’s March — stepped off from Washington Square Park under the banner “Freedom Over Fascism.”

“Today, some people are celebrating the 250th anniversary of this country. Meanwhile, our neighbors are being kidnapped by ICE and put into concentration camps, VA, Medicaid and SNAP — vital services — are being cut to instead fund war crimes abroad, and for troops to occupy cities like DC, Memphis, and New Orleans,” said Rebecca Roberts, Organizing Manager of About Face: Veterans Against the War, a 12-year veteran of the New Jersey National Guard who resigned her commission in protest of U.S. foreign policy. Roberts noted the march returned to the same ground where veterans and military families gathered 50 years ago, during the Vietnam War, to demand a country that took care of them. “We cannot continue the next 250 years as we have the last 250,” Roberts told the crowd. “So who is with me?”

Rebecca Roberts led attendees in a call-and-response, asking marchers to raise their fists if they demanded no troops and no ICE in the streets or at the ballot box, an end to endless wars and war crimes, and a divestment from war in favor of funding communities at home.

Michael McPhearson, Executive Director of Veterans For Peace, invoked the Declaration of Independence signed 250 years ago in the same city. “On this anniversary, hundreds of veterans and military families have come to sound an alarm for democracy, as our national leaders ignore these basic truths, trample our rights, and treat us as subjects of them and the billionaire class, not as self-governing equals,” McPhearson said, comparing the deployment of military personnel into American neighborhoods to British suppression of dissent before the Revolution. He called on service members to “remember their duty to refuse illegal orders” and on the public “to honor our service not with thank-yous but by organizing and acting to protect our elections and to stop fascism.”

Cam White of the Center on Conscience and War, who marched alongside active-duty members of the Army, Marines, Air Force, and Navy, said the number of active-duty troops joining the demonstration was unusual. “There are more active duty troops at this protest than there has been in generations, because people in uniform today are waking up,” White said, adding that many service members are “facing the greatest crisis of conscience that they have ever dealt with in their lives.” White reminded attendees that “servicemembers do not take an oath to a President or a government, they take an oath to the Constitution,” and that troops have “a duty to disobey unlawful orders.”

Maxine Rebeles, a Navy veteran and member of About Face and Common Defense from Laredo, Texas, tied the march to her work with the No Border Wall Coalition and Frontera Federation, describing efforts to stop a border wall and river buoys she said would endanger riverfront communities’ only water source. “We’re watching militarized law enforcement like ICE and Border Patrol harass, intimidate, and outright murder people who were standing up for their neighbors,” Rebeles said. “This is an alarm bell for the country. And we don’t intend to be quiet about it.” Rebeles closed with a symbolic gesture, laying yellow flowers to represent “250 years of repression and oppression” and a white rose to symbolize the future the coalition is fighting for. “The future does not belong to billionaires, it does not belong to bulldozers, and it does not belong to fear,” she said. “It belongs to our children, it belongs to our communities, and it belongs to us.”

Johnny Odom, a retired U.S. Army Sergeant First Class, combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and member of Military Families Speak Out, spoke as the father of a service member currently deployed to Jordan since the start of the war with Iran. “Today I stand here before all of you as a father… to denounce this illegal and unjustified war against the people of Iran, [and] the mis-utilization of American forces without Congressional approval and, most important, the people’s approval,” Odom said. “In my multiple deployments I honestly can’t tell you why we were in Iraq or Afghanistan or what we achieved other than violence and trauma. Now my son is repeating the cycle in Jordan, and it tears me up inside to think he is in harm’s way for no good reason.” Odom called on veterans and military families to help “restore the standards and traditions that make this country truly unique,” warning: “We are at a crossroads. We can choose to build and fight for the country that we all deserve, or let a wealthy few steer us down a path of ruin.”

About the Coalition

About Face is an organization made up of Post-9/11 service members and veterans organizing to end a foreign policy of permanent war and the use of military weapons, tactics, and values in communities across the country.

Fayetteville Resistance Coalition (FRC) is a non-partisan coalition of individuals and organizations united in opposition to authoritarianism. It advocates for governance that serves all people.

50501 Veterans is a nonpartisan, veteran-led advocacy organization dedicated to peaceful civic engagement and nonviolent action, working to uphold the oath to support and defend the Constitution through strategic advocacy, coalition building, and community engagement.

Veterans For Peace is a global organization of intergenerational military veterans, from WWII to the present, and allies whose collective efforts aim to abolish war as an instrument of national policy. Its network comprises over 140 chapters worldwide.

Common Defense is a veteran-led grassroots movement dedicated to protecting democracy, combating authoritarianism, and building a future where liberty and justice truly are for all.

The Center on Conscience & War is a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of conscience, opposes military conscription, and serves all conscientious objectors to war.

Military Families Speak Out round out the coalition, with support from Women’s March.

Please note you can find photos of the march here: https://www.gettyimages.com/editorial-images/entertainment/event/freedom-over-fascism-vets-march-on-philly-by-veterans-against-fascism/776516450?editorialproducts=all

Want to become a member? Join MFSO.

We Oppose Illegal, Immoral Wars.

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) strongly condemns the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran that is bringing obscene and unnecessary death and destruction to its people while injuring and killing U.S. service members. All of our loved ones signed up to protect country and Constitution, not to be used as pawns in illegal, immoral wars of choice and aggression. 

Many of us remember with indescribable grief the days our loved ones were deployed to another war of choice and aggression in Iraq, only to have them return with devastating physical, invisible and moral injuries; or in flag-draped coffins. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, women and men were killed and many more injured in that immoral conflict. 

Now a new generation of military families suffers from the deployments of their loved ones to a war that should never have started. Billions of dollars that are so needed for healthcare, education and jobs are being expended each day on war crimes – the bombing of a girls’ school and targets that bring torrents of black, acid rain down upon the people of Iran. The war has destabilized the entire region, with a growing death toll in Lebanon and other countries.

Once again there was no Congressional Declaration of War as required by Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution. Soon Congress will be asked to vote on funding for this abomination, being told that funds are required to support our troops. Military Families Speak Out needs Congress to understand deeply that funding an illegal and immoral war is not supporting our troops, it is killing them. Members of Congress must know in no uncertain terms that any vote supporting funds to continue the war on Iran will make them complicit in this most horrendous military misadventure.

End the war on Iran, bring our troops home NOW, and do not re-deploy them to the Caribbean, Venezuela, Cuba or our cities! 

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is a national organization of post 9-11 military families founded in 2002, speaking out to prevent and end forever wars in the Middle East. MFSO welcomes the voices of military and Gold Star  families speaking out against the misuse and abuse of service members in today’s military misadventures, including deploying the military to U.S. cities and towns, Venezuela, Cuba and Iran.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Long Beach, CA. January 9, 2026 

Contact: Pat Alviso, 562-833-8035, mfsooc@earthlink.net 

Military Families Speak Out Opposes U.S. Attack on  Venezuela 

Military families across the country are once again devastated by our loved ones being  used as pawns in a military operation that has nothing to do with their oath to protect  country and Constitution and everything to do with oil markets and asserting dominance  in the Western Hemisphere. 

Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) condemns the latest actions involving Venezuela by  President Trump. To violate a country’s airspace, bomb their airports, kill over 80 civilian  and military personnel and kidnap their head of state is a declaration of war, a criminal  kidnapping, and a blatant violation of international law These actions occurred without  Congressional authorization. The Constitution clearly assigns these powers to Congress.  No debate took place. No vote occurred. The American people were denied a voice.  Untold harm has and will come to the people of Venezuela, and to our loved ones in  uniform. 

Two decades ago, the US invaded Iraq, lying about weapons of mass destruction, and  putting our loved ones and the people of Iraq in harm’s way. Today the lies are different  but the horrific results will be the same. 

“We military families know firsthand the true cost of war,” said MFSO member Alissa M.  “My husband lost a lot of his battle buddies in Afghanistan and afterward. Some lost  limbs, many suffer from PTSD, and far too many have been lost to suicide. Back then we  were told the mission was to capture terrorists. I can’t even imagine the carnage and  moral injury our troops will suffer as a result of being given orders to invade another  country, which is no threat to us, and control another country’s oil.”  

Military Families Speak Out demands an end to this attempt to overturn the government  of a sovereign nation, using our loved ones as cannon fodder and threatening the lives of  the people of Venezuela. We demand, and our troops and the American people deserve, lawful orders grounded in the Constitution and respect for international law. 

Congress must immediately reassert its authority over unlawful military acts and halt  military action against Venezuela or any other sovereign nation. Our troops are not  expendable. Their lives and their sacrifice demand lawful leadership rather than the misuse and abuse they will suffer being deployed to an unlawful military misadventure. We’ve seen this playbook before. We know how this will end. We simply cannot allow a new generation of service members and the people of Venezuela to be sacrificed for  another illegal, immoral war for oil. 

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Military Families Speak Out (MFSO) is a national organization of post-9/11 military families founded in  2002, speaking out to prevent and end the forever wars in the Middle East. MFSO welcomes the voices of military families speaking out against the misuse and abuse of service members in today’s military  misadventures including deploying the military to U.S. cities and towns, and currently to Venezuela. 

To ensure the AUMF amendment (which repeals the Iraq AUMF) stays in the final National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) we need to contact the following members of congress. Call their DC offices every day starting Dec 1, until the NDAA comes up for a vote, which should be any day now. If you have limited time, call the first four on the list below.  Try to call every day. Spread the word!

• Sen. Wicker ASC Chair-202-224-6253
• Sen James Risch (R- Idaho) 202-224-2752
• Sen Jack Reed (R-RI) 202-224-4642
• Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL)  202-225-3026
• Sen. John Thune-(R-SD) 202-224-2321
• Sen.  Chuck Schumer-(D-NY) 202-224-6542
• Rep. Mike Rogers-Chair-(R-AL) 202-225-3261
• Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) 202-225-27777
• Rep.  Hakeem Jeffries –(D-MA) 202-225-5936

Sample script “I am from [city/neighborhood] and I’m calling as a Member of Your organization. I strongly urge [their name] to keep the AUMF amendment in the final NDAA. (Reason-option)”

2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)

Why 2002 AUMF is Obsolete…

Originally enacted to authorize the use of military force against Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, the Iraq Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) is no longer relevant to present day military activities. Hussein’s regime was overthrown in 2003, and a formal end to the U.S. mission in Iraq was declared at the end of 2011 by President Barack Obama. Repealing the Iraq AUMF would constitute a matter of basic constitutional hygiene.  It is an important step toward rebalancing the division of constitutional war powers between an executive branch that has all too often usurped Congress’s war powers, and a legislative branch that has all too often ceded them. This AUMF is what has contributed to endless war. The law that authorized this long-over war should therefore be repealed.

Why should we repeal the 2002 AUMF now?

Repeal is critical now because doing so now can prevent misuse and abuse. The intent of 2002’s AUMF was to remove Saddam Hussein from power, and that has happened. Now, this outdated war authority could be used to justify a presidential overreach of unauthorized new military actions . For example, during hist first term, President Trump cited the 2002 AUMF as part of his legal justification for the 2020 assassination of General Qasem Soleimani. The Constitution says that Congress has that authority to declare when and where U.S military force is used.  Congress must repeal the 2002 AUMF to reassert their authority over declarations are war and use of military force.

Repeal of the 2002 AUMF has bipartisan and bi cameral support, as well as support in the White House. Vice President JD Vance co-sponsored and voted for an identical 2002 repeal bill in 2023, which passed with a strong bipartisan vote of 66-30. In 2021, members of the House also voted to repeal the 2002 and 1991 AUMFs by strong bipartisan votes. President Trump has also made ending endless wars a cornerstone of his presidency, stating in his inauguration speech, “we will measure our success not only by the battles we win, by also by the wars that we end.”

This law is now two decades old and it’s time to clean up the books!

MFSO took action throughout the country on Armistice Day, standing with veterans and allies to remember the original remembrance of November 11th.

Bell Ringing with Southern California MFSO & VFP Chapter 110  

Bell ringer Donald Pageler survivor of the June 8, 1967 Israeli attack on his ship, the USS Liberty

The ringing of 11 bells takes place every year on November 11^th. Veterans Day was originally called Armistice Day and for nearly 25 years Veterans for Peace has held ceremonies in cities across the country that celebrate the joy felt around the world when a ceasefire was declared at the end of World War I. That historical signing took place the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, to honor the end of a war considered so horrendous that people prayed war must never happen again. Yet it continues.

Book Talk in Orange County, CA

MFSO members and VFP chapter 110 in Orange County CA organized a book talk  at Page Against the Machine Bookstore (Long Beach CA) on Armistice Day. About Face members Joy Griffin, Fernando Islas and Louis Raprager packed the room to hear what they think are the books civilians should read to learn more about our veterans. The books they reviewed were They Were Soldiers, War and Homecoming: Veteran Identity in the post 9-11 Generation and About Face author Danny Sjursen’s Ghost Riders of Baghdad.

Nancy Lessin’s Speech at Vets Say NO! Rally in Boston, MA

I’m Nancy Lessin, co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, a nation-wide organization that began in November, 2002 when the drumbeats for war in Iraq were getting deafening. That fall, my stepson was on his way to the Middle East with the 24^th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Radio Battalion, without congressional approval or a war being declared. 

Traditionally, military families have been told to stand on the sidelines and salute, no matter how horrendously our loved ones are being used as pawns in military misadventures. We chose to SPEAK OUT, build the voice of military and Gold Star families, and join our voices with those of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and when it was formed in 2004, Iraq Veterans Against the War – now About Face-Veterans Against the War. 

Collectively, we knew better than anyone that our loved ones had all signed a contract – taken an oath to protect country and constitution — but the Bush/Cheney chickenhawk gang broke their side of that contract and sent troops off to kill and be killed in an invasion and occupation for oil markets – a war based on lies.

Fast forward to 2025  — the occupations our loved ones are now being deployed to are in our own cities – and Boston’s on the list. Calling up the National Guard – kids who signed up so they could go to college, teachers, fire fighters, our neighbors…they pledged a weekend a month and two weeks a year to prepare for floods, hurricanes, tornados, fires, natural disasters (or these days, unnatural, due to climate change). And again we hear the lies – not “Weapons of Mass Destruction” but “Crime on our Streets” (there’s crime, alright – all the kidnappings conducted by ICE). And we hear about fentanyl in Venezuelan fishing boats  — seems more like regime change due to Trump seeing our oil under Venezuelan soil. 

Twenty-three years ago Military Families Speak Out called bullshit on the Weapons of Mass Destruction lies, and today we call bullshit on everything the Trump Administration is doing in their march to fascism. 

We are proud to stand with About Face and all the Veterans here on this Armistice Day (Armistice meaning Stand Still the Arms). We are your families, and you are our hearts.  If there are any military families out there, or that any of you know who might want to join their voice to ours, send them to militaryfamiliesspeakout.com.

We know that it’s never been a politician who’s ended a war, or stopped a march to fascism – it’s always been a social movement. I want to thank everyone here for being part of that social movement.

Military Families Speak Out says: not one more day, not one more dime of tax-payer money, not one more abduction of our neighbors, and not one more lie – No ICE, No CUTS, No Military on our Streets, and NO Fascism. 

TAKE ACTION – Call your US Senator and ask them to vote no on HR 22 (aka SAVE AC)!

Stand with MFSO and SFI to say NO on the SAVE Act. It was passed in the House on April 10 and currently in the Senate. 

Please push your senators in congress to vote against it. It severely hinders active duty military from voting!

One of the barriers this bill is trying to impose on voters would be requiring voters to bring passports or birth certificates in person to their election office in order to register. This means – no more registration from your far-away duty station. 

Use this tool by Action Network to send a email to your senators. Tell them: Vote NO on the SAVE Act.

The deployment of U.S. military personnel to the southern border is an ineffective and costly use of resources that fails to address the root causes of migration and border security concerns. Rather than enhancing national security, this approach diverts critical military assets from their intended missions, strains defense budgets, and places service members in roles they are neither trained nor appropriately utilized. Furthermore, such deployments risk undermining constitutional protections, particularly the Fourth Amendment rights of immigrants and asylum seekers, which guard against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Military forces are not a sustainable solution for managing immigration policy or border enforcement. Civilian agencies such as Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are better equipped to handle these responsibilities through targeted personnel, technology, and infrastructure investments. The continued reliance on troop deployments reflects a short-term political strategy rather than a viable long-term solution. In addition, military involvement at the border raises significant legal and ethical concerns, including the potential for violations of due process and protections against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment.

Additionally, such deployments impose unnecessary burdens on military personnel, disrupting training schedules and readiness while offering little strategic value. Instead of misallocating defense resources, policymakers should prioritize comprehensive immigration reform, diplomatic engagement with neighboring countries, and enhanced border management strategies that align with humanitarian and security needs while upholding constitutional rights. We strongly oppose the unnecessary deployment of troops to the border and management strategies that don’t align with humanitarian and security needs or uphold constitutional rights. 

We strongly oppose the unnecessary deployment of troops to the border and advocate for effective, sustainable, and fiscally responsible solutions that respect civil liberties and address border security and immigration challenges.

Last month,  6 formerly deported veterans joined members of the American Legion Post 354 in Buena Park gathered to unveil a mural of their fellow deported veterans. The room was filled to capacity with US Congressman Lou Correa and the entire Buena Park City Council in attendance among other officials in attendance. Their goal was to bring awareness to the issue that over 40,000 US active duty service members are currently vulnerable to deportation. Also, US veterans who have served honorable have already been deported and await humanitarian paroles so they can return to their families. The group is heavily promoting the re-introduction of the last congressional session’s  bill HR 4569 which would end the practice of  military deportations by allowing for the process of obtaining citizenship to begin during basic training.

THE LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND MURAL PROJECT

A mural project supporting and bringing awareness of deported veterans across the globe. Since 1996 over 1,000 honorable discharged non-citizen veterans have been deported.  All of them were here legally with green cards. It’s time to bring them home. Supported by the National Executive Committee of the American Legion. For more information https://leavenoonebehindmuralproject.org

HR 4569 is the Veteran Service Recognition Act, which would protect non-citizen veterans from deportation and ensure that they and their families would still receive the benefits they earned if they are deported and begin the process of obtaining citizenship while in basic training. This bill also expedites the process for naturalization for our non-citizen servicemembers ensuring that no veteran or service members lips through the cracks of our immigrations system.