Linda and Phil Waste would normally spend their July traveling the country in their recreational vehicle.
But this year the retired Yakima couple decided to pull off the road in Washington, D.C., where they've spent the past few days standing outside the offices of elected officials to carry a simple message: Bring the troops home — now.
The couple recently participated in Military Families Speak Out's daily vigil, Operation House Call. Participants have been meeting one-on-one with members of Congress to try to persuade them to stop the war.
The organization, made up of people who have loved ones serving in the military, has maintained the daily vigil since June 22. It's set to continue until Friday.
Operation House Call is trying to call attention to the number of American and Iraqi lives lost in Iraq during the six-week period by displaying military boots to represent troop casualties and shoes to represent Iraqi deaths.
The Wastes have three sons and two grandsons who have served or are serving in the war, said Linda Waste, 54.
Although she initially supported the war, the former East Valley School District teacher's aide started having second thoughts in May 2003, when President Bush landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared: "Mission Accomplished."
"I knew it wasn't 'Mission Accomplished' because on that day, my son was getting ready to march on Fallujah," she said in a telephone interview from the road Friday.
But it wasn't until last summer, after reading an account of Cindy Sheehan's anti-war vigil outside Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, that the couple decided to join the peace movement. Sheehan's son, Casey, was killed in April 2004 in Iraq.
They contacted Sheehan's camp and decided that evening to join her and other military families in Crawford.
Since then, the couple have actively spoken out against the war, a military action they believe is illegal and immoral.
Phil Waste, a 66-year-old former elevator repairman, said he and his wife don't speak for their sons and grandsons, but he said the young men support what their parents and grandparents are doing.
Tracy Sawyer can be reached at 577-7628 or tsawyer@yakimaherald.com.
