Big Red One vets coming to Cantigny
Roughly 600 veterans from around the country will be arriving in DuPage County Wednesday for the annual 1st Infantry Division reunion.
The "Big Red One" is the Army's oldest continuously active division. Uniforms, weapons, awards and personal mementos used by its members in World War I, World War II and Vietnam are on display in the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton.
"Because the museum is about them, (the reunion is) a really big deal for us," said Gayln Piper, the museum's director of media. "We're really looking forward to having them come to Cantigny."
The reunion is hosted by the Pennsylvania-based Society of the 1st Infantry Division, which holds a gathering once a year in different parts of the nation. The last time the group held a reunion at Cantigny was in 2004.
Piper said many of the veterans are staying at the Westin in Lombard, but they will be spending a lot of time at Cantigny over the weekend.
At the park, the veterans will be given special garden tours and are welcome to an open house at the McCormick Museum. Some of the museum's largest artifacts that are too large to display all the time, including a World War II landing craft and a Vietnam era Huey helicopter, have been pulled out for the veterans to view.
"Many of these veterans have donated to our museum, and this is an opportunity for them to see their donation," Piper said.
In addition, the museum's research center will be open to help answer questions the veterans may have about people they served with and additional artifacts inside will be on display for private viewing.
Piper estimated that only about five of the attendees will be World War II veterans. The majority will be Vietnam veterans, who she hopes will be drawn into the museum's new exhibit, "Five Years in the Jungle: Vietnam Experiences of the 1st Infantry Division 1965-1970."
Aside from their time at Cantigny, the veterans will go on a tour of Chicago sports stadiums, watch horse racing at Maywood Park, go on a Chicago River cruise, play golf and attend a memorial service. There will be society meetings, a welcome party and reunion banquet, too.
Piper said she has heard from veterans who are excited to visit Cantigny again and meet up with war buddies and new friends from the division they have made in recent years.
"When they're together it's truly a band of brothers," she said. "No one else knows what they've seen or done but these guys. When they come together there's a common understanding. They just get it, and they get each other."