Nearly 10 years ago, three veterans in rural Appalachia planted the seeds for what would become a national movement to stop the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a 303-mile-long methane gas pipeline that runs from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia.
In early 2015, George Jones, Clarence Givens, and Russell Chisholm met in the basement of the Newport Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church in Giles County, Virginia with other community members who would be impacted by the pipeline buildout. The goal was simple: to figure out how to defeat a pipeline backed by two powerful interests—West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and the largest methane gas producers in the U.S. Over the next decade, local groups led by Jones, Givens, and Chisholm testified at public hearings, presented in front of congressional representatives and federal judges, monitored the pipeline route for environmental violations, and protested alongside impacted Indigenous communities. Ultimately, the Biden administration struck a backroom deal with Manchin, and President Biden greenlit the MVP under the cover of other must-pass legislation, all while global leaders called for an end to new fossil fuel projects in light of an ever-intensifying climate crisis. In 2024, construction of the pipeline was completed.
For the three veterans, the federal government’s decision to prioritize the pipeline’s construction over demands for clean water, climate policies that support mental health needs, and investment in rural communities emphasizes its unwillingness to protect constituents in the face of corporate greed. The same profit-motivated policy decisions led the federal government to wreak havoc on communities and environments abroad in all three wars the veterans fought in—only this time, the war was at home along the steep slopes of Appalachia.
George Jones of Giles County, Virginia (U.S. Navy veteran, Korean War)
George Jones died in 2019 and is survived by his son and daughter-in-law, Don and Ivette Jones. Born and raised among Appalachia’s slopes, George Jones knew the corporations behind MVP had charted the pipeline’s route without ever stepping foot on the land—it was illogical to build a high-pressure methane gas pipeline both on such steep, seismic terrain and through towns that would be extinguished if it exploded.
Don Jones remembers when his father tried to meet MVP surveyors on his property in 2015, shortly after the project was announced. Then 86 years old, he packed his lunch and sat at his gate all day before calling his son to ask why MVP hadn’t shown up at the agreed-upon time. MVP told Don Jones that they had already surveyed the property and just hadn’t used the front entrance.
“From day one, that never set good with my dad. He felt like it was a criminal act coming in on the backside of his property unannounced. He’s a person [whose] word meant something. He expected the same respect from a person [or] business,” Don Jones told Prism.
The property MVP wanted access to had been in the Jones family for 10 generations. In the late 1700s, the federal government gave 100 acres to the Jones’ through a land grant in recognition of their military service in the Revolutionary War; the Virginia state government also gave parcels of stolen Indigenous land to veterans to encourage enlistment.
Over the years, George Jones watched regretfully as his brother sold pieces of the land. It was a relief when, in the early 2000s, he inherited 70 acres. At the time, he was overjoyed “to have the honor of protecting it.” But a decade later, he watched MVP invade the land and pollute the water he had grown up with.
“It really laid heavily on his heart,” Don Jones said.
Clarence Givens of Craig County, Virginia (U.S. Air Force veteran, Vietnam War)
Clarence Givens, who died in 2017 and is survived by his wife Karolyn Givens, saw the situation clearly from the start.
“This was a big bully corporation coming in, and he was going to fight it,” Karolyn Givens said.
Clarence Givens’ love for his country motivated him to serve in the Air Force. According to his wife, he saw the MVP as the epitome of the worst parts of the U.S.
He also never forgot the experience of returning from the Vietnam War. “They were spit on,” Karolyn Givens recalled. “It was awful. That hurt him a lot. He wouldn’t talk about what happened [in the war].”
Reflecting on her husband’s life, Karolyn Givens couldn’t help but connect the adverse treatment of veterans in the U.S.,—including her husband’s reception home and failures in the Veterans Affairs system—with the wanton ability of a pipeline project to bulldoze their property.
“He really believed we would win,” she said of Clarence Givens’ resistance to MVP, which threatened the land his family had lived on for four generations. She recalled being surprised and inspired by his fervor.
“He was a quiet person … but if he had something to say, it was worthwhile,” she said.
Russell Chisholm of Giles County, Virginia (U.S. Military veteran, Gulf War)
When Russell Chisholm returned from the Gulf War to widespread fanfare from the American public, he was startled.
“It felt very staged and superficial to me,” he said of the treatment of veterans. Chisholm said he felt the country was overcompensating for its treatment of Vietnam veterans like Clarence Givens without actually addressing veteran wellbeing.
“People wanted to have a party,” Chisholm said. “We just wanted some quiet and some fast food.”
When the MVP was proposed near his secluded home in Giles County, Chisholm was motivated when he saw Jones and Givens, two seemingly ordinary veterans like him, immediately resist the project.
“It was absolutely inspiring,” Chisholm said. “I would have not gotten involved otherwise.”
Early in the pipeline fight, he heard about the mobilization at Standing Rock, including the call for veterans to join the frontline. Considering the veterans had sworn an oath to “defend against enemies foreign and domestic” when they enlisted, the three felt it was their duty to protect their community from what they recognized as domestic enemies: fossil fuel corporations.
“What good [is] that oath if we don’t show up truly in this moment?” Chisholm said.
The early MVP movement was focused on white landowner needs, so Chisholm traveled to Standing Rock in December 2016 to learn from the Indigenous-led movement, recognizing the paradoxical history of white settlers stealing Indigenous land and then using similar tactics to retake the land to serve corporate interests.
The mobilization represented the real meaning of military service to Chisholm—a service that is often misconstrued in a country where the government and corporations help commit, and benefit from, genocide abroad.
“Real patriotism is about protecting people—defending people from threats and harm,” he said.
