Honoring Illinois State Trooper Gerald Ellis-- Part 1

I was out there most of this afternoon for the funeral procession of fallen State Police Policeman Gerald Ellis. He gave up his life in the line of action so that others might live.  The true definition of a hero.  And he was sent off in a correct manner.  By fellow officers and a whole lot of the general public around where I viewed it at the corner of Illinois Highway 173 and Deep Lake Road east of Antioch, Illinois.

Services were held at the College of Lake County in Grayslake and then a procession left there and went to the Tri-State Tollway and north to Randall Road by the state border and then to 173 to Deep Lake and Lake Villa.

We had around 100 people where I saw it along with two fire trucks with ladders up flying a huge American flag, several hundred smaller American flags and quite a few of the Blue Line American flags including the one I was holding.

Unfortunately, the procession was delayed almost an hour in starting so we had a long wait.  Fortunately, the weather was fairly nice.

I told several people the significance of the flag I was holding and talked quite a while with one man who had been drafted in the Vietnam War but had served his time in Korea along the dangerous DMZ as an artillery observer.  Sadly, he told me that after his tour of duty was over, his group went to Hawaii for shots and were told to take off their uniforms and get into civilian ones.

They found out why when they got stateside, when, despite civilian clothes, they were recognized as soldiers, sworn at and spat upon with calls of murderer and baby killer.

This never should gave happened.  Whether you were for or against a war or president, you never ever treat out military that way.  Sure hope this never happens again.