WWII veterans storm memorial in Washington amid shutdown

More than 90 World War II veterans who arrived in Washington, D.C. Tuesday morning as part of an "honor flight" from the Gulf Coast found themselves in the middle of a political photo opportunity when they faced barricades blocking entry to the National World II Memorial.

"They told us we could stand at the barricades and look in, but that we couldn't go inside,'' Jodi Bowers told Al Jazeera. Bowers, an organizer for The Honor Flight Network, traveled with the veterans from Mississippi and Louisana.

The National Parks Service, which runs the memorial, had earlier told Honor Flight Network organizers that the memorial might be closed due to the federal government shutdown, which began Tuesday. So they called Rep. Steve Palazzo, R-Miss., and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who vowed to ensure they would be able to visit the memorial.

"Congressman Palazzo moved the barricades and then he said, 'Let's go!''' Bowers said.

The U.S. government began shuttering nonessential services Tuesday after a Congress bitterly divided over President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act pushed Washington into the first federal shutdown in 17 years when lawmakers failed to agree on funding parts of the act and the federal budget.

As staunch opponents of the ACA, both Palazzo and Wicker effectively voted for the shutdown that put the barricades in place, as did other politicians who showed up, including Rep. Steven King, R-Iowa, and Rep. Michelle Bachman, R-Minn.

Bowers said a bagpiper led the veterans, men and women who ranged in age from 85-99, some in wheelchairs, to the memorial -- and an emotional moment when they were the only people there.

"We were here and it was just us,'' Bowers said. "That was kind of special.''

Leo Shane of military newspaper Stars and Stripes and a handful of other reporters captured these scenes of Tuesday's activity at the memorial.

Al Jazeera