By John Montesano
The Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club (FVVBC) Veteran of the Month program started in April 2015. Now renamed the FVVBC Herschel Luckinbill Veteran of the Month, the stories of 77 veterans have been presented. My participation in the program has come to an end because I will be moving out of the State.
It has been my honor and privilege to share the stories of so many of our local veterans each month in The Voice.
My military experience was 1966-1972 in Chicago, as a member of the Illinois Army National Guard. It was a compelling, tumultuous, revolutionary, time in our Country. The civil rights, women liberation and gay liberation movements were issues of the day. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. The Vietnam War was very unpopular, and our troops were vilified by the press and by the public while many of their brothers in arms had lost their lives, or returned home broken. Civil unrest ensued. As a result, my National Guard unit was called up to the streets of Chicago several times.
I received an honorable discharge May 5, 1972. Not attaching any significance to my service, nor considering myself a veteran, I continued my life without any thought of it. In 2014, that all changed when I met the late Herschel Luckinbill, president of the FVVBC, and Mike Eckburg, commander of Roosevelt-Aurora Post 84 of the American Legion. With their encouragement, I quickly became involved in supporting our local veterans, mostly with my photography. The FVVBC Veteran of the Month program began as a suggestion to Herschel by Dick Williams, a World War II veteran, to honor a Breakfast Club veteran each month and to publish their stories in The Voice.
When Herschel Luckinbill asked me to run the program, I gladly accepted. I thought I would be telling the story of each veteran’s time in the service, but quickly realized that there is so much more to each person’s story, especially how the veterans made transitions to civilian life. The program has given me the opportunity to get to know veterans who served from 1941 to the present, in war and peace time, in WW II, Korean War, Vietnam War, Lebanon/Granada, Panama, the Cold War, Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan).
Each veteran, whether in combat or not, served a vital role in the military’s accomplishing its goals. It is impossible to know how their service impacted their lives. Most came home changed persons, for better or worse. Some had physical injuries sustained in combat while many suffered psychological effects from their experiences. Some always will feel the emotional trauma.
How each veteran navigated the transition to civilian life and became productive citizens became the most compelling part of their stories. Because of the structure and discipline acquired from their military service, most veterans made this transition successfully and continued their contribution to our country. The period of adjustment to civilian life may have varied, but the outcome was eventually the same.
Over the years since World War II to the present, society’s reaction to veterans returning home certainly has varied with appreciation, indifference, hostility, and acceptance. These days, veterans often hear: “Thank you for your service” for which they are appreciative. The FVVBC Herschel Luckinbill Veteran of the Month program has shown us that a more appropriate expression would be: “Thank you for your life and your contribution to this Country.”
I always will cherish my association and friendship with the “77” and because of them, I no longer consider my service as insignificant, but rather have a sense of pride in being a veteran. Fourteen of the 77 veterans have passed, but all will be remembered for their contributions to their country. Every veteran has a story that needs to be appreciated. I am grateful to The Veterans’ Voice to enable me to share their stories.