B.E.F.: The Whole Story of the Bonus Army

In the summer of 1932, General Douglas MacArthur led regular United States Army troops into the streets of Washington, D.C. to evict more than ten thousand veterans of the Great War from the streets of Washington. This is the story of those veterans, told by one of their number. Walter W. Waters, a World War I Army sergeant, set out from Portland, Oregon with 300 other veterans in 1932 to petition Congress for early payment of the bonus promised to veterans of the World War. With the Great Depression at its height, these men crossed the county on freight trains, then lived in shacks and abandoned buildings in Washington while seeking to improve their circumstances. This is their story, told by one of their own.