Veterans Day events throughout the suburbs honor those who served
Communities across the suburbs held Veterans Day ceremonies Wednesday to pay tribute to those who have served in the United States military.
Patriotic music from the Larkin High School band filled the Centre of Elgin’s Heritage Ballroom for a ceremony hosted by the city and American Legion Post 57.
New Post 57 commander Jason Shanahan was overseeing his first Veterans Day event for the organization. He said Nov. 11 shouldn’t be the only time veterans receive gratitude.
“It’s only on this day that you hear people say thank you for your service, when we should be thanking any veterans we see every day,” he said.
Navy veteran Bob Balsamo of Elgin attends the event every year, sitting in the same spot and bowing his head mournfully when taps is played. He said it always takes him back to his father’s military funeral, when he was 9 years old and given the folded flag.
“They told me when they gave it to me, ‘You’re the man of the house now,’” Balsamo said.
Guest speaker Shirldine Nohl, senior vice commander of Post 57, spoke about her time serving in both the Navy and the Army National Guard.
“It’s a total honor to do what I did,” she said, while encouraging young people who may not be sure what they want to do to join the military. “I don’t regret one minute of it.”
In Schaumburg, about 100 people gathered at Gateway Park to honor veterans with a ceremony that included guest speaker Col. Gina Stramaglio, an Air Force instructor pilot with 24 years of military flying experience.
Stramaglio spoke about the sacrifices service members make on long deployments away from home, sometimes lasting up to 300 days at a time.
“On every assignment, every deployment and every training event, I watched countless men and women make quiet daily sacrifices,” she said. “They missed birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and funerals, and they spend way too many Thanksgivings and Christmases in the chow hall, 7,000 miles away from home.
“But they did it,” Stramaglio added. “And they still do it to preserve the freedoms that so many before them lost their lives to secure.”
Before a full room at Gurnee American Legion Post 771, Cmdr. Les Deffner also spoke of the sacrifice.
“It has been said that every veteran wrote a blank check to the United States, and more importantly, to the American people, for an amount up to and including their life,” Deffner said. “A nation prepared to defend itself gives a potential aggressor reason to think twice. We call that deterrence through strength. Part of that strength comes from people willing to spend months away from home.”
The event featured performances from the Lakeshore Singers, who were joined by the audience for the final verse in a moving rendition of “God Bless America.”
Daily Herald staff photographers Brian Hill and Joe Lewnard contributed to this report.
rwest@dailyherald.com