Service, sacrifices saluted in Orland Park, Tinley Park
While growing up in Orland Park, U.S. Army Lt. Col James Hannigan said he was continually inspired by the village and its residents’ sense of military duty and honoring those who serve.
“I know that Orland Park serves,” he said, addressing dozens of veterans and their families inside the village’s Civic Center during a Veterans Day observance. “Orland Park knows the many sacrifices that peace and freedom require.”
Hannigan, a 1998 graduate of Sandburg High School, joined the Illinois National Guard in 1999 and enlisted for active duty in the Army. The 41-year-old has been part of the Army Reserves since 2007 and is based in Missouri.
His uncle, Tom Dubelbeis, served in the Army in Vietnam and Hannigan recalled how for his second grade class he borrowed his uncle’s dog tags for showand-tell. Dubelbeis is a former longtime member of the village’s Veterans Commission.
Hannigan said while he has experience in giving talks in front of groups, he was a bit nervous about Thursday’s speech.
“It is humbling to stand here and address you,” he said of the veterans in the audience. “There are hundreds of years of service to our country in this room.”
Hannigan’s current assignment with the Army Reserves is working to boost its ranks, and he said he hoped that by veterans talking to their children, grandchildren or in schools about their own experiences, that might inspire younger people to consider military service.
Mayor Keith Pekau, an Air Force veteran, talked about how family members “often bear the brunt of military service,” and that during his three deployments he missed out on important milestones in his family.
His counterpart in Tinley Park, Mayor Michael Glotz, addressed veterans at a ceremony in that village, telling them “we’re able to gather here today as free men and women because of your service, and for that we are forever in your debt.”
He said that Veterans Day is special in that it “reminds us of the tenacity, determination and sacrifice that goes into keeping our country free.”
As part of Orland Park’s ceremony, the names of six veterans who have been added to the village’s Veterans Memorial were read.
Robert Bernas, Eugene Moskal, Martin Pavlik and Eugene Smith, all of whom served in the Army, Ralph Richard Budzinski, a veteran of the Air Force Reserves and Navy veteran William Stewart Van Berschot had their names engraved in the memorial.
The memorial, situated between Village Hall and the Civic Center, is typically the site of Veterans Day observances, but this year’s event was moved inside because of the weather.