Event Highlight: Operation Take Up Space
Aired live on August 29, 2026.
Lindsey Knapp, an attorney and Army veteran, laid out Operation Take Up Space, a 300 mile, 22 day ruck march led by women veterans from Asheville to Wilmington by way of Charlotte and Fort Bragg, stepping off September 12. She tied it to election protection after Texas removed voters from its rolls, and explained why it ends at the 1898 Memorial in Wilmington.
Show notes
Operation Take Up Space is a 300+ mile, women-veteran-led ruck march across North Carolina. It runs September 12 through October 3, 2026, and it is built around four anchor events in Asheville, Charlotte, Fort Bragg, and Wilmington. Every stop is a public demonstration and a large-scale organizing push tied to a Common Defense campaign.
Lindsay Knapp is the campaign lead. She joins the Smoke Pit to walk the route, the strategy, and the reason this thing ends at 1898 Memorial Park in Wilmington and not at a statehouse.
50501 Veterans is a listed partner organization on this campaign. If you have been waiting for something to plug into, this is it.
THE ROUTE
– Asheville / Hendersonville, Sept 12. March Launch. Guidon Brewing Co., Hendersonville, 12pm to 4pm. Yoga Fest with three back-to-back classes, plus mental health, wellness, and support resources for veterans and military families.
– Charlotte, Sept 19. Drag Out The Vote. Location and time TBA. Drag performers, veterans, organizers, and community, with voter registration and election information on site.
– Fort Bragg, Sept 26. End Forever Wars. Gather 10am at the mosaic mural at Fayetteville State University, walk to the U.S. Army Airborne and Special Operations Museum for an anti-war demonstration, then on to Carolina Indie Fest at Hugger Mugger Brewing in Sanford.
– Wilmington, Oct 3. Closing Ceremony. 1898 Memorial Park, 10am. Joined by the President of the North Carolina NAACP, at the site memorializing the violent overthrow of Wilmington's legally elected Black government.
WHAT WE GET INTO
Why women veterans are the ones leading this, and why that is the point rather than the framing.
How you organize 300 miles of road into four campaigns instead of four rallies.
Yoga fest, drag show, anti-war march, memorial. Why the tonal range is deliberate.
What Wilmington 1898 has to do with an election in 2026.
What a veteran in Ohio or Arizona does with this if they cannot get to North Carolina.
HOW TO PLUG IN
Volunteer form and full campaign detail: commondefense.us/otus
Virtual information sessions still open: Aug 30 at 2pm ET, and Sept 2 at 6pm ET.
Volunteer roles run from planning, admin, and fundraising through route coordination, support vehicle, livestream and tech, and wellness and safety. Participation is available half-day, full-day, or multi-day.
WHERE TO WATCH
Live Saturday at 2000 ET on YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, Instagram Live, and Facebook Live. Hour One is the interview. Hour Two is yours: Fire for Effect, Action and What's Next, and the Safety Brief.
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