American Legion George W. Benjamin Post 791, a small storefront on Shermer Road in Northbrook, was packed with vets on Thursday, the Fourth of July. Brianna Owen, 18, read her essay that won a $1,500 scholarship toward tuition next fall at Ithaca College, where she will play volleyball as an outside hitter.
“This planet that we are on together is a beautiful one,” she began. “We are all very lucky to be on it. However, this planet is also dangerous .
..” After she finished, the assembled said the Pledge of Allegiance.
Thomas Mahoney, post chaplain, led the opening prayer. “Please uncover,” Mahoney said. He thanked God, “source of all our freedom,” then added: “We humbly request a special blessing on those individuals in this room tonight who in serving both God and country preserved our freedom and the freedom of the people of the Republic of Korea.
” The Republic of Korea — what we think of as “South Korea,” when we think of it at all — doesn’t get name checked much in prayers at American Legion halls. But there were three guests from the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Chicago: Consul Taesu Yeo, resplendent in his police uniform, Vice Consul Jongyun Ra and cultural coordinator Eojin Shin. They brought along two Ambassador for Peace medals, given to service members who fought in the Korean War.
The medals were presented to Salvatore Casali, 95, an Evanston resident and, posthumously, to the family of Mario Faldani. “We honor the co.
