Two United States Marine Corps veterans are near completing their second 300 mile march from their homes to Washington, D.C., in an attempt to get lawmakers to take action regarding the case of Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who has been in a Mexican prison since March.
Marines Terry Sharpe and Allen Brown completed their first march from North Carolina to the White House less than a month ago. After arriving, they delivered a message to President Barack Obama urging him to "make the call" to Mexico to get Tahmooressi released back to the United States.
Sharpe and Brown were home for just four days before they grew fed up again and began their second march.
"There is no reason for this to continue any longer," Sharpe told the Free Beacon earlier this month when he decided to head back to D.C. "Every day he is in that jail is a day he is falling behind in his healing process."
Sharpe and Brown are now closing in on D.C. and say that they remain frustrated, angry, and disappointed that another month has passed and Obama has done nothing substantive about securing Tahmooressi’s release. This trip, however, their target has expanded from President Obama to Democrats in Congress.
On their last trip, they attended the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing along with the Marine’s mother Jill Tahmooressi and talk show host Montel Williams, who has become a vocal leader in the fight to have Tahmooressi released.
According to Sharpe, only two Democrats attended the hearing. One of them was Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.), who he says left the hearing soon after she got her picture taken with Jill Tahmooressi.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D., Va.), for example, sits on the foreign affairs committee and the two Marines walked straight through the heart of his congressional district, yet he failed to attend the hearing.
Sharpe does not believe that this fight should be a political one, and wants Democrats to join Republicans in pressuring the White House to take action on Tahmooressi’s behalf.
"It’s going to take Democrats speaking up for Tahmooressi to get Obama to make the call," Sharpe told the Free Beacon.
"This is about getting our Marine out of the Mexican prison so he can get help for his PTSD," Sharpe told the Free Beacon. "It isn't about political parties."
"I am frustrated to see how little demonstrated concern the Democrats have shown for the military," he said. "They just don't care, that's what it is. If they did, he'd be out."
Sharpe and Brown, who served together in Vietnam, are both 63 years old. They claim that the second walk has not been easy, but is necessary.
"We are hurting, and it's getting pretty cold out there, but this is something we have to do for a fellow marine who has served our country honorably," said Sharpe.
The Marines note that they have received even more support on this march than they did on the last one, including from fellow Marines and veterans who have joined them for long portions of their walk.
Supporters plan to gather again at Arlington Gateway Park just outside Washington, D.C., on Saturday morning to walk the final miles to the White House.