Army veteran Alejandro Villatoro thinks current service members should “question their oath, the position they’re in, and the decisions they’re making in other countries.”
The 44-year-old was among dozens gathered Monday afternoon in front of the Vietnam War Memorial wall on the city’s riverwalk, which bears the name of more than 3,000 city residents who perished in the war.
Villatoro joined Veterans Against War in 2009 and was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2010 and 2011. He’s been a fixture of the annual protests at the monument since, and previously marched during the 2012 NATO summit, in which he and others reenacted a 1971 Vietnam protest where soldiers threw away their medals. He, along with others, threw his “War on Terrorism” medal, as well as NATO medals for participating in the invasion of Iraq and war in Afghanistan, toward the McCormick Place convention center fence where the summit was held more than a decade ago.
Now, he sees a mirror of his experiences in the havoc the U.S. military has wreaked in Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, among other places. The U.S. has indicted Cuba’s leader on murder charges — an echo of its strategy in deposing Venezuela’s leadership and installing its own — and a U.S. blockade of fuel and other goods has caused widespread blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse on the island 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.”
Alejandro Villatoro, a 44-year-old Army veteran who joined Veterans Against War after being deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan three times, throws a rose into the Chicago River during an anti-war rally on Memorial Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Riverwalk in the Loop, Monday, May 25, 2026.
Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
Among the crowd was Sgt. Kayla Harris, an 8-year Army National Guard veteran, who was the first person in her family to serve in the military since her grandfather was drafted for the Vietnam War.
As she recalled his memory to the crowd, as well as his recent death due to illnesses spawned from his exposure to the chemical weapon “Agent Orange,” she asked people to add “anger and resistance” to the joy of barbecues the holiday usually brings.
She also urged people to remember the innocent civilians killed in every war as she addressed the crowd.
“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.”
Abbey Harris, the mother of an Illinois National Guardsman who isn’t related to Kayla, agreed. The latter Harris, a member of Indivisible Ogle County, traveled more than 90 miles to support one of the group’s members, an Air Force veteran, who was coming to the ceremony.
“Memorial Day makes me think of all the people who have fought and died for the rights that are being taken away from us,” Harris said. “So I couldn’t think of a more meaningful way to celebrate Memorial Day than to speak out against the war and atrocities being committed in our names.”
Harris’ grandfather was a World War II veteran, and she said it felt like her son was following in his footsteps when he signed up for the Illinois National Guard.
He had been in basic training as President Donald Trump threatened to send units of the military branch into the city, and she now worries about what her son could be asked to do as part of his service because of it and 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,” 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.”
