SOUTH HOLLAND | The current U.S. military efforts are in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the military mentality on Saturday went back to an era when the enemy was Adolf Hitler and the Japanese.
Thornton Township officials held their annual Veterans Day ceremonies, and used them to pay extra attention to memories of World War II. Township Supervisor Frank Zuccarelli called that particular military effort impressive because it was fought both in Europe and throughout the Pacific Ocean.
"Fighting a war like that on two fronts had never been done before, but we came back victorious," Zuccarelli said, adding of the soldiers who perished in that war some six decades ago, "their sacrifices continue to make a difference in our lives today."
Ceremonies included a ritual raising of the U.S. flag by the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 9964, along with the playing of taps and the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by the a capella group Four Old Parts.
It also included an elaborate display inside the township offices, 333 E. 162nd St., of war memorabilia connected to south suburban residents who served in the military some 65 years ago, with some of those veterans also in attendance.
Their involvement ranged from Walter O'Keefe, of Dolton, who served in the Marine Corps during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and showed up for Saturday's ceremonies in his full-dress Marine uniform. At one point he stood guard to the township offices and at another he led those participating in the ceremony in a moment of prayer.
Others who participated were Robert Lint, who served in the Army Rangers and brought along his old M-1 rifle with bayonet, along with a .44-caliber repeating rifle that was used by family members who served in the military during the Spanish-American War.
Mitchell Van Der Aa, a South Holland resident who served in the Navy onboard the USS Mellette, brought along certificates showing he was present when Japanese officials surrendered in October 1945, and also a document indicating he had been onboard ships that sailed on both sides of the equator.
On a more serious note, he was part of the military force that took the Pacific island of Iwo Jima, and he recalls one moment when a Japanese fighter pilot dropped an explosive that detonated in between the ship he was onboard and another U.S. vessel about 100 yards away.
"Looking back on it now, it was a real dangerous place to be," Van Der Aa said.
"But that wasn't something I concerned myself with back then. I enlisted because I wanted to be there to serve my country."
Expressing a similar thought was William Walsh.
"I didn't wait to be drafted, I enlisted at 18," he said. "Kids today are different, we didn't think twice about wanting to serve in the military."
But not all of the remembrances were about military veterans telling "war stories."
At one point, Zuccarelli asked for a moment of silence to pay tribute to the roughly 6 million people of Jewish religious background who died in German-run concentration camps, as well as those U.S. military personnel who were killed in the 1941 attack by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor - which is what brought the United States into the war.
And he also managed to bring Saturday's ceremonies into the present, asking those in attendance to say a prayer to give President-elect Barack Obama the strength and ability to successfully end the current military effort in Iraq.
