Tatro was at the mill, but Alice came out to greet them, followed by three of her six children, including a boy Red’s age. She was a short, blocky woman, nearly as wide as she was tall, with a beaming smile and a strong handshake. She explained that her husband had arranged for them to rent one of the company houses down the street for twenty-five dollars a month. Until they moved in, they were welcome to stay with the Tatros.

Clay Tatro knocked off work early and greeted Jake with a bear hug. What hair he had left was mostly gray and he had put on at least fifty pounds since the war, but he was a big, powerful man who looked as though he had fought a thousand battles. Tatro had taken part in the Bonus Army march in May 1932, when unemployed World War I veterans formed what they called the Bonus Expeditionary Force and descended on Washington to demand the bonuses that had been approved by Congress in 1924 but never paid, amounting to $1.25 for each day served overseas. Over forty thousand people, including veterans with their wives and many children, had camped at Anacostia Flats across the Potomac River from Washington in a festive atmosphere which included a generous dose of military discipline. The bill to give the veterans their money passed the House but was soundly defeated in the Senate. After the veterans clashed with police trying to clear them out and two of the marchers were killed, Herbert Hoover ordered the U.S. Army to clear the flats. Troops led by Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and George Patton were dispatched, along with a half dozen tanks. Patton’s cavalry charged first, attacking unarmed men, women, and children. Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, firing tear gas into the crowd. Two veterans and two babies in the camp were killed and a thousand civilians injured. The hospitals filled with casualties. The unarmed veterans of the Great War were routed.