Fallen local servicemen, from Civil War to Afghanistan, honored at Christmas with cemetery wreaths

Dozens of people gathered at a Crystal Lake cemetery Saturday morning to honor military service men and women who died while serving the nation. A golden bell rang out after each name of a fallen service member was spoken out loud.

This ceremony at Union Cemetery, 150 W. Woodstock St., was the first time nonprofit Wreaths Across America came to Crystal Lake. The organization provides live balsam fir wreaths for people to place on veterans' graves across the country. Crystal Lakes’ William Chandler Peterson Ame

[ Photos: Wreaths laid at graves of local veterans ]

rican Legion Post 171 and VFW Post 12014 partnered with the Crystal Lake-based charity Veterans Path to Hope to honor 30 local heroes.

In McHenry, American Legion Post 491 laid wreaths on veteran graves on Sunday. That was not with Wreaths Across America; instead, Commander Chad Miller said, the McHenry legion purchased 288 live wreaths at a discount from The Home Depot in Crystal Lake and pla

[ McHenry County's long history of serving the nation – and the Revolutionary War vet who's buried here ]

ced wreaths at every veterans' grave at St. Patrick’s Countryside Cemetery and St. Patrick’s Churchyard Cemetery, both in McHenry.

For Crystal Lake’s first year with the national program, Gold Star recipients were honored. A Gold Star recipient is an active-duty man or woman who was killed or died while serving in the military. Local American Legion Senior Vice Commander Robert Dorn hopes to expand the effort in the future to honor all who have served.

“If this takes off, it could get really big,” he said. “We’re hoping someday we’ll cover all of that.”

Of the 30 names called, 20 are buried at Union Cemetery. Others honored were from McHenry County but are buried at various cemeteries outside Crystal Lake. Fallen veterans who served in World War I, World War II, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan were named, in addition to a Civil War veteran buried at Union Cemetery. One of the names was John Larimer of Crystal Lake, who died at age 27 in 2012 during the mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Larimer was serving in the Navy and was stationed at a base in Aurora at the time.

“There is a saying that is often quoted many times over in the centuries,“ American Legion Post 171 Post Commander Charles Morgan said. ”That quote says: ‘It is said that you die twice. Once when you take your last breath. The second time is when somebody says your name for the last time.’”

Boy Scout Troop #165 assisted with laying the wreaths at each headstone. The ceremony included a prayer; “Taps” was played on the trumpet and “The National Anthem” sung.

“We just want a special thing that will be planted in the individual’s mind of what we’re doing and how we’re honoring them and to be respectful to them,” Dorn said.

Wreaths Across America is a nationwide nonprofit with a mission to remember and honor those who have fallen while teaching the next generation the value of freedom. The organization and its network of volunteers placed over 3 million wreaths at 4,225 locations last year.

Wreaths Across America ceremonies are also in Huntley, Marengo, and Union, according to the organization’s website.

Huntley’s ceremony also took place Saturday, with the Huntley Cemetery partnering with Huntley American Legion Post 673 and The Rotary Club of Huntley to place wreaths in Huntley and St. Mary cemeteries, according to the village’s website.

In addition to Larimer, the people honored during the Crystal Lake ceremony were: Charles Behan, WWII; Ernest Blank, WWI; Herbert Booth, Jr., Vietnam; Elmer Carlson, WWII; John Clarke, WWII; Paul Colby, WWII; Clarence Ehrke, WWII; Herbert Fahrenholz, WWII; Glenn Farren, WWII; William Fitzgerald, Spanish-American War; Lynn Gumprecht, WWII; Walter Pederson, WWI; Charles Pederson, WWII; Elmer Peters, WWII; Robert Peters, WWII; William Peterson, WWI; Ragnar Randau, WWI; John Rowley, Civil War; Gordon Schlottman, WWII; LaVerne Schroeder, WWII; Clayton Starritt, WWII; Ralph Wells, WWI; Jason McLeod, Afghanistan; Ryan Cummings, Iraq; Collier Barcus, Iraq; Keith Nurnberg, Iraq; Nathan McHone, Afghanistan; Jonathan Collins, Iraq; Christopher Antonik, Afghanistan.

Susan Yon Hanson, vice president of the McHenry American Legion Auxiliary Post, said the two St. Patrick’s cemeteries were picked this year, but that they hope to add other McHenry cemeteries in the future. “We had enough wreaths to do both” but not additional sites, including St. Mary’s, Woodland and Holy Apostles cemetery, Yon Hanson said. “Next year we want to do all of McHenry.”

She is also hoping to begin a database of all veteran gravesites in McHenry in the spring, Yon Hanson said.

She walked the two St. Patrick’s cemeteries in recent days to determine where veterans were buried, she said, including finding World War I and a Spanish-American War veteran. Other McHenry cemeteries have gravesites going back to the Civil War.