Armed Marine Veteran Stands Watch Outside Recruiting Center

If U.S. military recruiting offices are now targets for the unstable, the malicious or the haters of America, anyone intent on wreaking havoc there should know people are on guard.

In the wake of the Chattanooga murders last week that claimed the lives of four Marines and a sailor, Chicago police deployed officers to stand watch at the city’s recruiting centers. Over in Indiana, the governor authorized National Guardsman to carry arms. And in small-town Crown Point, Indiana, we have Tom Willoughby, a Marine Corps veteran who’s decided to watch over his brothers at the local recruiting station.

Willoughby — who enlisted in the Marines when he was 17 and once served as a recruiting officer himself, in Illinois — set up across the street with a folding chair. He also put out a call on his Facebook page for other volunteers to join him.

A farrier and blacksmith the past 34 years, as well as an artist, poet and songwriter, Willoughby is armed and standing watch.

“I feel like I need to do something,” Willoughby told ABC Chicago. “If that’s sitting out here and showing my respect and showing maybe I can protect something, then that’s what I’m going to do.”

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He’s far from alone. Self-appointed watchdogs have appeared outside other recruiting stations across the country following the Tennessee tragedy in which a lone gunman opened fire on a Navy reserve center with a handgun and an automatic rifle. Police killed the gunman.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Willoughby said, “I sat and cried in my shop when I heard it.”

The blacksmith-turned-watchman cares deeply about Corps and country. A few years ago, Willoughby forged a work of art for a woman to honor the memory of her brother who was killed in Afghanistan.

“Because she loves the Marines, we came up with a Marine Corps emblem, 12 inches by 12 inches,” Willoughby told nwi.com at the time. Moved so deeply, she hugged the emblem for hours.

That same passion put Willoughby outside his local recruiting center, where barricades have gone up around the Marines’ storefront office. In Indiana, concealed carry of weapons is legal, so Willoughby is well within his rights to arm himself. The local police, and the Marines, for that matter, say the help isn’t necessary.

“We greatly appreciate their support during this tragedy but we just kinda ask citizens not stand guard at our recruiting offices,” Sgt. Tyler Mitchell, a public affairs officer based in Indianapolis, told ABC.

For his part, Willoughby says he feels compelled to because he’s an American and, always, a Marine.

“Them guys, they don’t need help. They’re Marines. They’re the toughest people walking,” Willoughby said. “But somebody needs to be out here to show they care.”