By ROBERT RIGGS
Kentucky Correspondent

JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. — A group of American veterans calling themselves Operation Free have barnstormed the state of Indiana a second time to promote the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act now before Congress.

This latest “Veterans for American Power” tour, including ex-military men from Indiana, traveled across the state in a biodiesel-powered motor home resembling a big blue bus. Their mission was to carry a message to American voters about their desire to see new clean energy legislation passed to protect the nation.

Ed May, a veteran of Desert Storm, was first off the bus when this seven-stop tour of college campuses and veterans’ posts landed at Joseph P. Vittner VFW Post 1832 in Jeffersonville on Dec. 4. May was an Army staff sergeant when former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s soldiers burned the oil fields of Kuwait almost 20 years ago. Now he attends college as a disabled vet and volunteers his voice for the cause of alternative and homegrown energy.

May said for the current tour he flew to Chicago and then joined the others in Valparaiso, Ind., on Nov. 30, where Operation Free had a roundtable discussion at the Valparaiso University School of Law. The following day the group spoke at a VFW post in Fort Wayne, Ind.

On Wednesday, they were in Indianapolis at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis campus, where they presented another roundtable between students and vets. That same day they went to Purdue University. On Thursday they held press conferences in Terre Haute and at Indiana University. On Friday the tour came to a close in Jeffersonville.

Veteran Chuck Tyler, who served as a soldier during both Gulf wars, has called the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act a positive step in moving the nation toward energy independence. As a 10-year Army veteran, Tyler has been quoted in prior American Power tours saying he doesn’t want oil to fuel America, period.

Tyler believes in the American farmer and biofuel as part of the answer to America’s energy dependence problem. He also said he believes climate change and farming corporations may become a problem for farmers.

An Oct. 23 article by Bridget Saroff in the Wilkes Barre Times-Leader states that Operation Free is supported by a coalition of veterans’ groups and national security organizations, including VoteVets.org, VetPAC, Truman National Security Project and the National Security Initiative.

According to the Operation Free website, the Hoosier farmer is just one of the many constituencies courted by the group, which bills itself as politically progressive.

Operation Free has been criticized by some in Washington, D.C., for promoting propaganda with respect to global warming and climate change. The organization has stated its purpose as reducing America’s policy of dependence on fossil fuels, which it believes is wrecking the environment and is often used by the nation’s enemies to fund terrorism.

This was the second time Operation Free has ended a tour in Jeffersonville; the first ended Oct. 17.