Chicago honors veterans at Soldier Field

As the West Point Glee Club sang “God Bless America,” Don Brady’s 4-year-old grandson Xavier, clad in a camouflage outfit, tried on his grandfather’s “Navy Veteran” hat.

The pair had already been to four Veterans Day ceremonies before Saturday morning’s event at Soldier Field, which was attended by a few hundred people. “I’m trying to teach him the right way to remember,” Brady said.

Brady, a Chicago native who served in the U.S. Navy from 1975 to 1979, is a member of the Canaryville Veterans Riders Association. The group was traveling Saturday to various events to commemorate Veterans Day, first known as Armistice Day.

He planned to take Xavier to three more ceremonies Saturday; this is the first year the veteran has brought his young grandson along.

“We have to teach these kids how to honor veterans,” Brady said. “They’re forgetting.”

Veteran Tom Bahr attended the event with his daughter, Jacqueline Bahr.

Born and raised in Chicago, Bahr served in the Navy from 1973 to 1976, and was deployed to Iceland, Italy and Spain. His father was a veteran of World War II who was on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France.

Bahr’s daughter, a teacher at Kingsley Elementary School in Naperville, said she makes time to be with her father on Veterans Day every year.

“We always spend this day just the two of us,” she said.

In November 2010, the pair took a trip to Normandy where they watched a battle reenactment and remembered her grandfather’s service.

“Growing up with a veteran as a father and grandfather, it became a tradition to honor them,” she said. “It’s a day that I can say thank you for what they’ve done for me and my freedom.”

Bahr said he thinks honoring veterans is even more meaningful this year. “It’s important for people to remember, especially with the climate now and all the protests. It’s good to show that people still appreciate their service and are grateful for what they sacrifice.”

That service and sacrifice was noted by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

“We owe this day to remembrance, we owe this day to thank them [veterans] and their families, and we owe them [veterans] the honor of respecting what they fought for and remembering those ideals,” Emanuel said.

The mayor said he hopes Chicagoans will “use the inspiration of this moment to inform what we do the other 364 days to thank the men and women who serve this great country.”

The mayor also called for better services for veterans after they return home. “Never again in the city of Chicago will a veteran call Lower Wacker home,” he said.

Ryan D. McCarthy, acting secretary of the U.S. Army, said Veterans Day is a reminder to remember our those who’ve served year round, “not just on a weekend in November.”

McCarthy, who grew up in Glenview, called the men and women who serve in the military “the most precious resource we have in our country,” and he urged those present to remember that “no one knows exactly the time or place or adversary America’s next armed conflict.”

“In times like these, we need Chicago’s sons and daughters standing in our ranks,” McCarthy said.