“A sacred annual moment.”
That’s how Evanstonian, Cook County Commissioner and U.S. Air Force veteran Larry Suffredin described Friday’s annual Veterans Day ceremony at Fountain Square.
Suffredin has been a guest speaker at the event for the past two decades.
But this will be his last, as he’s retiring from the Commission on Nov. 18.
With that, Suffredin noted, “it will be the first time in over 100 years that there has not been a veteran on the County Board.”
“We need to encourage veterans to run for public office,” he added.
The ceremony was presented, as in the past, by American Legion Post 42, and Tech. Sgt. William H. Snell VFW Post 7186.
Post 42 chaplain Christine Candelario told the crowd that we as a society “owe a debt of gratitude to those who served.”
Coinciding with Veterans Day, and running through next Friday, the VFW post has an exhibit at the downtown library remembering Evanston residents who gave their lives in the Vietnam War.
Photos of 23 service members, along with other historical memorabilia, are on display.
Twenty-one of those service members’ names are on the Memorial Wall at Fountain Square. Two others whose names are not on the wall are also included in the exhibit.