WACO, Texas, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- A disabled Vietnam veteran has been given probation for destroying a memorial set up by anti-war activists near President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
Larry Chad Northern pleaded no contest to criminal mischief charges in a hearing in McLennan County, Texas, the Waco Tribune reported. He ran over several hundred wooden crosses that had been placed along the side of Prairie Chapel Road by anti-war demonstrators including Cindy Sheehan, the California woman whose son was killed in Iraq.
In an e-mail, Northern told the Tribune he thought the memorial dishonored the dead soldiers.
"There is no honor or respect by demeaning their service to their country or their mission by placing sticks in a ditch with their names attached with rubber bands and typing paper," Northern said. "Their spirit called out for someone to help them. Someone did."
The same day Northern entered his plea Thursday, two anti-war protesters were fined $150 for disrupting traffic near the Bush ranch in Crawford.
