WASHINGTON — Rig Madden, an Army Veteran who retired as a master sergeant in 2016, is one of five founders of Remember Your Oath, a group that protests the Trump administration’s military and domestic policies both in person and online.
“I warned for years that if you let someone as corrupt as Trump back in office, you will have to make a choice,” Madden said. “You can either choose him or democracy; you don’t get to keep both.”
Madden was deployed overseas five times. To Cuba in 1995, Bosnia in 1996, Kosovo in 1999, Iraq in 2008, and Afghanistan in 2013. He now shares his over 20 years of military experience online as an activist and has amassed over 170 thousand followers on Instagram under the handle @USArmyOverlord.
On August 25, the group responded to President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard by establishing a veterans’ rally point in Columbus Circle outside Union Station. It is here that they set up a hub for community outreach and protest activity.
“I’m not really here to debate Confederate lovers,” Madden said. “I’m here to defeat them, and so I defeat them by rallying to our people, and rallying to people who still want to fight for democracy and gather them together.”
After over one hundred days of resistance at the Veterans’ Rally Point, their tents were forcibly removed on December 10. Madden says they are still unwavering in their efforts.
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