Parade, ceremonies in Rolling Meadows, Bartlett launch weekend of events

The Northwest suburbs kicked off Memorial Day weekend events recalling the sacrifices made by members of the military with a parade and ceremony in Rolling Meadows and a ceremony in Bartlett.

The Rolling Meadows parade down Kirchoff Road ended at the Veterans' Memorial Monument and Carillon, where a ceremony recognizing veterans was held.

In Bartlett, about 60 people listened to an address by retired Col. Craig Estick, who was the commander brought in to run the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq with its 7,000 detainees in 2004 after the scandal over how prisoners of war had been treated under previous leadership.

Estick spoke of the sacrifices made by many members of the military. Despite the adage that old soldiers don't die, they just fade away, "they do die, in popular and unpopular wars … carrying the flag and our ideals and values to every corner of the world."

He said he felt fortunate to come out of the war relatively unscathed, retiring as a sergeant from the Streamwood police department in 2010 and becoming a grandfather.

He talked of his memories from Iraq, good and bad. "Above all, I remember people … who crowd my memory with images of pleasure and pain."

Emanuel Bucur said about 150 people belong to Bartlett VFW Post 11018, of which he is the commander, with about three quarters of them veterans of the Vietnam War.