Elgin City Councilman Anthony Ortiz, a former U.S. Marine, saw the Remembering Our Fallen war memorial a few years ago and recalls seeing the names of 25 friends killed in action during the military’s push through Sangin, Afghanistan.
The photo exhibit “brought a tear and a smile” to him, Ortiz said. “I know their faces and names won’t ever be forgotten with memorials like this one.”
It was such a memorable moment for Ortiz that he asked the city’s Cultural Arts and Special Events Department to find out if it could be brought to Elgin.
It could, and it will be on display over Memorial Day weekend at Bluff City Cemetery.
Remembering Our Fallen is a traveling exhibit made up of 34 “Tribute Towers” on which military and personal photos of more than 5,000 fallen soldiers who died between 9/11 and Aug. 30, 2021, are displayed. It was unveiled at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., in late 2017.
This national memorial also acknowledges how veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress and honors those who battle invisible wounds or have committed suicide.
“We know there’s a higher (suicide) rate among veterans than civilians on a per capita basis,” said Jacob Zimmerman, superintendent of the Kane County Veterans Assistance Commission, who works with veterans on issues like employment, mental health services and housing assistance.
He believes there needs to be more attention given to the issues that Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans face, he said, as well as providing more information on the resources available to help them.
Veterans of more recent wars have had to deploy more than once because the military is now all volunteer as opposed to previous wars in which soldiers were drafted for a single deployment, Zimmerman said.
“I’m not a psychologist, but I imagine it has an impact on folks,” he said.
Memorial Day is “often tough for veterans, especially those who’ve deployed, based on my experience with them,” Zimmerman said. “(Visiting a war memorial can be) a time for healing for some of those folks. … You see Vietnam veterans get together and share their experiences and remember the people they’ve lost, even after the war.”
There aren’t many memorials yet for veterans from the Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan wars because they’re still relatively recent, he said.
“I don’t know if there will ever be closure for the folks who were there and experienced some trauma, but (some closure) can start happening now that the wars are over and you can create more traveling memorials like this,” Zimmerman said.
Organizers of the Remembering Our Fallen also continue their efforts to reach out to Gold Star families, who can ask to have their loved one included in the exhibit through the organization’s website, www.patrioticproductions.org/rememberingourfallen.
Remembering Our Fallen will be on display the same weekend as the Vietnam War Memorial replica is displayed at Randall Oaks Park, West Dundee.
Gloria Casas is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
