Chairs filled Evanston’s Fountain Square this Monday morning, waiting in anticipation of American Legion Post 42’s Memorial Day ceremony to commemorate those lost in service.
The ceremony began at 10:30 a.m. and contained remarks from Cook County 13th District Board Commissioner Larry Suffredin, Evanston American Legion Post 42 Cmdr. Will Candelario, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7176 Cmdr. Charles Spivey and Chaplin Kenneth Doss. The tradition continued alongside these remarks with the lying of wreaths, a rifle salute and the playing of Taps.
Despite the ceremony operating as it did before the pandemic, keeping Memorial Day festivities alive for future generations was on the top of attendees’ minds.
Victoria Schullery was one of those attendees. Coming from a family full of veterans, Schullery is very cognizant of the price troops pay when enlisting in the service, driving her to be in attendance . This was her first time attending the ceremony in Evanston.
“[I’m] very hopeful to see different ages, not just the older veterans,” she said. “I think this is something that people should prepare families and children, to continue to teach them what it is to be an American.”
And it is with this hope that Schullery shared her concern — forgetting all those we lost and the risk that accompanies enlistment.
“It is something that could always be lost,” she said. “As President Reagan said, ‘Freedom is [never more than one] generation away from [extinction].’ So it’s something we need to keep together and constantly remind each other.”
The crowd did contained attendees of all ages but, as generations shift, the threat of forgetting isn’t the only thing changing. There is also a growing appreciation of, and acceptance of, veterans who don’t fit the industry’s standard demographic.
Mildred Harris joined the Army back in the 1960s as a tape communication specialist. She comes from a small town in Georgia where her family didn’t have the money to send her to college, so when the recruiter talked to her at her school career fair, she knew it was the right choice to fund college. However, at the time everyone thought the military was a man’s game.
Harris said this has changed over time and people are now recognizing women as being a part of the military. But, being a trailblazer for women didn’t come without its challenges.
“There are others who just give me mean looks,” Harris said. “Sorta like, ‘why you wearin’ a cap,’ things like that. Or at some time, there are people who said, ‘were you really in the service?’ Of course, I was really in the service, why would I walk around with a cap on if I wasn’t?”
Despite this, Harris loved her work with the military, which she described as “one of the most incredible experiences of [her] life.”
Harris has attended the Evanston ceremony before, but with the wall memorializing those lost in the act of service in the backdrop, it brings a new level of appreciation to her. The wall was installed in 2018.
“It means a lot because sometimes people passing … to shop,” Harris said. “Because [the wall] is such a pretty shade of blue, I imagine a lot of people stop and read. And they might know someone they can identify with. I think this is wonderful.”
Organizing this celebration was nothing short of a challenge. Greg Lisinski, a former commander of American Legion Post 42, said a lot of work goes into planning, with the biggest step with the organization of the Buglers and the rifle team.
Lisiniski himself is honoring his friends back from when he served in the Army, but this year it hits a little different.
“I just came back from a military reunion at Fort Sill Oklahoma,” Lisiniski said. “We have a memorial wall there and every year when I go somebody else is on that wall, and some of the people on that wall are our dear friends of mine — people I knew when they were boys. It stuck with me more this time than it has in the past because some of my closest work buddies were on that wall and that’s why I was thinking of them.”
The ceremony speakers centered the conversation around the names on the memorial wall, and how their names aren’t the only ones to memorialize. Across the country there are memorials highlighting the names of community members outside the Evanston border, and how upsetting it is to see so many young people lose their lives in the act of service.
Corey Schmidt is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.
