Longtime Fox Valley veterans advocate Herschel Luckinbill will be saluted for his work on Thursday before leaving the area to retire in Tennessee.
Luckinbill, 75, will be recognized at 7 a.m. Thursday at the Oswego American Legion Hall, 19 W. Washington St. in Oswego, where he will preside over his last meeting as president of the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club, a group that encourages camaraderie among veterans.
He has been president of the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club since 2008. The club’s membership grew from 30 members to an average 70 members when the pandemic hit, he said.
Over the years, the Navy veteran has escorted World War II veterans on 25 Honor Flights to Washington, D.C. He was one of the leaders that organized local efforts to bring the Vietnam Moving Wall to Aurora in 2013 and Oswego in 2017.
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“Herschel is one of the most involved veterans I have ever known,” Oswego American Legion Post 675 Commander Joe West said. “Whenever there has been a cause for veterans in Aurora, Oswego and Montgomery, Herschel has jumped in with both feet. We could not ask for a better veteran and veteran spokesman. We are very proud of him.”
Luckinbill and his wife Eva have decided to retire in Tennessee. Eva Luckinbill served as the Aurora Public Library’s director from 1999 to 2015.
Herschel Luckinbill served in the Navy from 1964 to 1968 during the Vietnam War. On Dec. 23, 1966, he was serving on the USS O’Brien in the Gulf of Tonkin when it received three direct hits from a Viet Cong shore battery. Two of his shipmates were killed and several others were wounded. Luckinbill was 19 years old at the time and the event changed his life, he said.
“It made me realize how important military service is. I have been a firm believer in service all of my life,” he said.
He said it has “been an honor to work with our veterans.”
“I’ll probably get involved in veterans activities in some way in Tennessee,” he said.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on his ability to work with veterans, his wife said. The usual meetings, reunions and events were cancelled or postponed, including plans to bring the Middle East Conflicts Wall of Honor to Oswego in 2020.
The Wall of Honor, a tribute to members of the military who have died while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, was scheduled to be on display in the atrium of Oswego Village Hall in May of 2020, as part of Memorial Day commemorations, but was canceled due to the pandemic. Organizers are hoping to bring the exhibit to the village this May.
Luckinbill managed to work around the restraints of the pandemic, his wife said.
“Herschel used the telephone a lot and learned to use the various virtual technologies like Zoom to keep in touch with veterans and officers of the groups he worked with,” she said.
The couple has called the Fox Valley home since 1978. However, next month they will relocate to a newly constructed home in rural Tennessee.
“We are proud of the family that we raised here,” she said.
The couple raised three children – Glenn, Lorrie and Brad – all graduates of Oswego High School who went on to have successful careers, she said.
Army veteran Rick Gardner said Herschel Luckinbill will be missed.
“The pandemic changed a lot of things and probably gave him time to think about what he wanted to do,” he said. “Herschel has always been supportive of other veterans – it’s what he has enjoyed. There’s no end in what he has done.”
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.