"I walked among the crosses, looking for Louis’s. I asked some of the protesters, “You don’t have my son’s cross out here, do you?” They asked who my son was. I said, “Lance Corporal Louis Wayne Qualls.” They said, “How do you spell the first name?” I told them, and two of them disappeared. A few minutes later, they came back, pulled a cross out of the ground that didn’t have a name, and stuck a cross in the ground with Louis’s name. Right then I thought to myself, “How disrespectful. You never asked me to do that.” Military tactics went off in my head; I was surrounded by Cindy Sheehan’s people, and I knew if I yanked it out, I’d have a hell of a fight. I said to myself, “I’m going to repossess it. Time is on my side, and I’ll do it when they least expect it.”

The next day I brought a big picture of my son with the words “Fallen Hero” on the top. Representatives of Cindy Sheehan saw that and asked if I wanted to have a meeting with her. I said sure. So we met and talked for about 45 minutes, mostly about what our sons had done. It was pretty civil. Then a photographer came over to take a picture. Cindy loomed over me, giving me a sad look, and then put her arms around my neck. He took the picture. I was not hugging her, but afterward I gave her a hug. Then I pulled out my camera and said, “Can we have a picture with my camera?” In that she’s smiling real big. I figured out that everything about her is cameras and the media. She gave the sad face for the news photographer, but right after, she was smiling. She’s a fake. The very last thing I said to her was “Please leave our fallen heroes out of this.” All of a sudden the hate came out of her heart. She said, “I can use my son and anybody else I want to anytime.” I looked at her with disgust.

Two days later, the media was all over the place, and I knew it was the best opportunity to get Louis’s cross without getting assaulted. I said, “I’m going to repossess my son’s cross,” and some cameramen asked, “Can we film it?” and I said yes. I waited for them to get their gear, then walked across the street. I said, “I’m taking my cross from these unholy people.” I found the cross and pulled it out of the ground, and I was almost attacked. One man said, “That’s our property.” I said, “That’s got my son’s name on it. It’s mine.”"