Remembering to remember our vets

My 85-year-old dad served as a Seabee in the Naval Construction Battalion in the South Pacific during World War II.

About 30 years later, my brother, now 58, served in the Navy as a yeoman aboard the USS Long Beach in the Gulf of Tonkin during the Vietnam conflict.

They've always played down their service as a duty. Yet I know they served to preserve the Constitution and to protect our freedoms, one of which is to express significant differences of opinion.

I've always had a huge soft spot in my heart for veterans and the need to provide them with the benefits and services they've earned.

For a couple of years, I've been on Mike Barbour's e-mail list to receive the Kendall-Gram, the monthly newsletter from the Judd Kendall VFW Post 3873. Barbour, who served in Vietnam, is a past commander of the post who now handles its public relations.

Naperville's active post with a big picture window overlooking the Riverwalk along the DuPage River is a friendly place where local veterans meet for camaraderie in the canteen, now smoke-free, or to plan patriotic events such as the Memorial Day Parade and the city's Veterans Day observance. Barbour does a great job of keeping nearly 650 members informed.

For instance, the VFW is in the middle of hosting its Friday Night Fish Fry from 5 to 8 p.m. every week during Lent. And members are now soliciting orders for their annual plant sale. Order forms for the sale are available at napervfw.org and due April 7 for pick up in early May.

The Kendall-Gram is full of opportunities with seemingly no end of service to fellow veterans and our community.

In turn, members of both American Legion Post 43 and Judd Kendall VFW Post 3873 like to remind us of their gratitude for the generous support they attract at veteran events and during Buddy Poppy sales every May.

I've rarely met a more appreciative group of individuals.

Every month, Barbour invites members to take a trek on the second Tuesday to visit patients in Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Maywood.

Local veterans and members of the Women's Auxiliary depart from the VFW for the 30-minute drive to the Spinal Cord Injury Unit. While there, Naperville veterans make the rounds, visiting with hospitalized veterans and distributing a little cash for the canteen, greeting cards designed by sixth-graders and hand-knit "lap robes." They also play Bingo.

Last Tuesday, I hitched a ride with Barbour, his wife, Jan, and Priscilla Laubscher as three carloads from Naperville headed to visit the 147-acre campus with its own ZIP code. The experience with these brave men and women who have served in the military and have made tremendous sacrifices to protect our freedom impressed me even more than I imagined it would.

Healing Field

My interest in Hines, with 483 beds, was elevated earlier this year when I was invited to help with The Naperville Healing Field of Honor, an initiative launched by The Exchange Club of Naperville in collaboration with Naperville Park District.

Naperville's Healing Field will be a colorful display of 2009 American flags from Nov 8-14 at Rotary Hill along the Riverwalk. Planted in rows, the flags, each on an 8-foot pole, will stand for all veterans, their families and everyone who is fighting some type of battle.

You'll find more information at healingfield.org under "Naperville."

All proceeds from support of the Healing Field will go to help fund construction of a Fisher House - similar to a Ronald McDonald House - offering free accommodations for out-of-town family members of hospitalized veterans at the Hines campus.

One thing led to another and coincidentally Sunday I read that the Department of Veterans Affairs marked its 20th birthday as a cabinet department on March 15, enacted into public law in 1989 after President Reagan signed the Department of Veterans Affairs Act of 1988.

Today, the Department of Veterans Affairs is the second-largest of all 15 Cabinet departments. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki was sworn into office Jan. 21.

The VA is responsible for serving 23.4 million veterans - nearly three-quarters of them served during a war or an official period of conflict. The VA operates more than 1,400 facilities, including medical centers such as Hines Hospital. I hope you'll take notice.

But mostly, I just want to say thanks to all our veterans. I don't say it enough.

Stephanie Penick writes about Naperville in Neighbor. Contact her at spennydh@aol.com.