Veterans find comfort at Cantigny reunion

Attending the 1st Infantry Division's annual reunion is like "coming home to a family" for Israel Tames.

"You can talk to someone who knows what you're talking about and where you're coming from," he said. "They can tell you what they have gone through and you can tell them what you went through."

Tames, of Texas, served in the Korean and Vietnam wars. The decorated veteran saw many of his fellow soldiers die in combat, but others who survived joined him this week for a reunion at Cantigny Park in Wheaton to reminisce and learn more about others who have served in the division.

"When you leave here, you're on a high for the next six months, looking forward for next year to be here," Tames said. "You count on that every year, to come and see your friends. That's a great thing."

Buddy Wallace, executive director of the Society of the 1st Infantry Division, said the society was formed at the end of World War I as a way for veterans to stay in touch. Since then, 97 reunions have been held across the nation.

"This reunion gives us a chance to talk about what we're doing, what we should be doing and what we could be doing better to help soldiers," he said.

That includes assisting soldiers and their families financially in times of need, awarding grants and scholarships to the children of deceased servicemen, providing job mentoring to the unemployed and continuing to tell the storied history of the division, also known as the Big Red One.

It's been more than a decade since the group's reunion was last held at Cantigny.

"It's a beautiful place to visit," Tames said. "It reminds you of a lot of things - not only of the legacy that was left to us, but the legacy that we built on. As we left our legacy, everyone from Iraq and Afghanistan has picked it up and made it a bigger legacy."

An estimated 730 veterans were in attendance at this year's reunion, including a few World War II and Desert Storm veterans and about 15 active duty members.

"The preponderance of our group right now is the Vietnam veterans. They are the mainstay of what we do," Wallace said.

It doesn't matter what generation the attendees served in, he said, "when you see two service members talk, it's the same language."

Vietnam veteran James Graham said he was afraid to attend a reunion for many years. Instead, he drank his way through the pain he felt after the war.

When he finally gave in, he was amazed at how therapeutic it was to meet with his buddies again.

"All the scars and wounds seemed to heal, just from conversation," he said.

A worn black and white scarf that Graham carried with him in Vietnam was on display in a new exhibit at the First Division Museum at Cantigny, along with artifacts donated by other veterans in attendance at this year's reunion.

"You could put that over your face at night and breathe through it and keep the mosquitoes off you," he said with a smile. "You wipe the sweat off with that, you tied up your wounds with that. It was like the greatest thing in the world, that scarf."

Other veterans, like Edward Gardner, didn't go through intense battles.

World War II ended shortly after Gardner was drafted, saving him from a deployment to Japan. He was shipped off to Europe instead, where he stood guard at the prison where several top Nazis were being held before the Nuremberg Trials.

Gardner served through 1946, then returned home to Pennsylvania, where he casually went on with life.

"Nobody knew what I did. Even my mother, she never knew what I did," he said.

Attending the reunion, however, gave him a chance to share his story. He said he loved the experience and hopes to attend future reunions.

"This is the first time he's really felt as though he was a veteran," his wife, Barbara, said. "Since he didn't fight, he didn't think he deserved to be a true veteran."