Christopher Bradley, AKA, “Bud” is a corporal in the marines based at Cherry Point air field in North Carolina. A service flag or Blue Star banner will hang in a window next month in his Palatine home where his mother, father and sister reside.
Palatine Twp. launches program to recognize those serving in military
By Carolyn Rusin TribLocal reporter May 31 at 3:54 p.m.
Christopher Bradley, AKA, “Bud” is a corporal in the marines based at Cherry Point air field in North Carolina. A service flag or Blue Star banner will hang in a window next month in his Palatine home where his mother, father and sister reside.
Christopher Bradley, AKA, “Bud” is a corporal in the marines based at Cherry Point air field in North Carolina. A service flag or Blue Star banner will hang in a window next month in his Palatine home where his mother, father and sister reside.
The small white flag with a red border and single blue star may not mean much to her neighbors in Palatine at first, but Barb Bradley plans to make sure they know about the sacrifice it represents.
The Blue Star Banner, as it’s called, represents soldiers serving their country. In this case, it’s Bradley’s son, Marine Cpl. Christopher Bradley.
“It’s a sense of pride,” she said of the flag. “It’s not that you are flaunting anything, it’s that you’re so proud.”
Bradley will receive the banner on June 27 from Palatine Township, which recently launched a Blue Star Banner program.
Township Clerk Lisa Moran brought the idea to the township board late last year with the idea of giving residents a chance to show their support of family members serving in the U.S. military. The program was approved in March. The flags are being paid for by the First United Methodist Church in Palatine.
“I’ve always been interested in serving military families,” Moran said. “I know these guys are true heroes. We don’t recognize enough the sacrifice of these men and women.”
Moran turned to Joyce Carrasco, director and founder of the Blue Star Mothers Group of the Greater Chicago Area, when crafting the township program. Carrasco knows of only one other Blue Star program — in south suburban Romeoville.
“I couldn’t be more pleased that Palatine Township is doing what they are doing,” said Carrasco, an Elgin resident. “The Blue Star program is going to unite families and others in support of our military families, and that’s what it is all about.”
The Bradley’s will be one of the first family’s to receive a Blue Star Banner under the Palatine Township program.
Christopher Bradley, 21, is currently stationed at Cherry Point, a Marine Corps airfield in Havelock, N.C., where he is in the logistics field with the HMH366 helicopter squadron, known as the “Hammerheads.”
He graduated from Fremd High School in 2007 and joined the Marines in January of 2008. He was deployed for a short stint to Iraq in November that same year and then later deployed to Afghanistan for about seven months. He could be deployed again this summer, his mother said.
Bradley said she asked her son how he felt if she, his father and older sister were to take part in the Blue Banner program. She said he gave his approval, but didn’t think there was any reason for such fanfare.
“He’s like regular military,” Bradley said of her son. “They don’t want to be honored. They want to do their job.”
Reprinted from Triblocal.com
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By · CommentsPresident Proclaims November as Military Family Month
By · CommentsAmerican Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Nov. 1, 2010 – President Barack Obama has signed a proclamation designating this month as Military Family Month.
Here is the text of the president’s proclamation:
We owe each day of security and freedom that we enjoy to the members of our Armed Forces and their families. Behind our brave service men and women, there are family members and loved ones who share in their sacrifice and provide unending support.
During Military Family Month, we celebrate the exceptional contributions of our military families, and we reaffirm our commitments to these selfless individuals who exemplify the highest principles of our Nation.
Across America, military families inspire us all with their courage, strength, and deep devotion to our country. They endure the challenges of multiple deployments and moves; spend holidays and life milestones apart; juggle everyday tasks while a spouse, parent, son, or daughter is in harm’s way; and honor the service of their loved ones and the memory of those lost.
Just as we hold a sacred trust to the extraordinary Americans willing to lay down their lives to protect us all, we also have a national commitment to support and engage our military families. They are proud to serve our country; yet, they face unique challenges because of that service.
My Administration has taken important steps to help them shoulder their sacrifice, and we are working to ensure they have the resources to care for themselves and the tools to reach their dreams. We are working to improve family resilience, enhance the educational experience of military children, and ensure military spouses have employment and advancement opportunities, despite the relocations and deployment cycles of military life. Our historic investment to build a 21st-century Department of Veterans Affairs is helping to provide our veterans with the benefits and care they have earned.
We are also standing with our service members and their families as they transition back into civilian life, providing counseling as well as job training and placement. And, through the Post-9/11 GI Bill, our veterans and their families can pursue the dream of higher education.
However, Government can only do so much. While only a fraction of Americans are in military families, all of us share in the responsibility of caring for our military families and veterans, and all sectors of our society are better off when we reach out and work together to support these patriots.
By offering job opportunities and workplace flexibility, businesses and companies can benefit from the unparalleled dedication and skills of a service member or military spouse.
Through coordination with local community groups, individuals and organizations can ensure our military families have the help they need and deserve when a loved one is deployed. Even the smallest actions by neighbors and friends send a large message of profound gratitude to the families who risk everything to see us safe and free.
As America asks ever more of military families, they have a right to expect more of us — it is our national challenge and moral obligation to uphold that promise. If we hold ourselves to the same high standard of excellence our military families live by every day, we will realize the vision of an America that supports and engages these heroes now and for decades to come.
Now, therefore, I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2010 as Military Family Month. I call on all Americans to honor military families through private actions and public service for the tremendous contributions they make in support of our service members and our Nation.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand ten, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.
Barack Obama
