After a year of college, Mike Harvey was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving from 1969 to 1971 as a combat engineer, including a tour in Plaque, Vietnam.
A former Vernon Hills resident now living in Burr Ridge, Harvey said he learned a lot during his time in the Army. Though many Vietnam veterans were not treated well when they came home, he said he was not one of them. He got a major benefit when he returned to college.
“I got the last three years of my education paid for by the G.I. Bill,” Harvey said, referring to the government program that pays for veterans’ college costs. “The war was unpopular then, but it’s not that way 50 years later.”
Harvey was one of 36 U.S. Armed Forces veterans receiving lapel pins for their service during the Vietnam era from U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, Saturday at the Walter Heller Nature Center in Highland Park, giving them some of the due they did not receive back then.
Established by the U.S. Congress in 2012 as part of the Vietnam War 50th Commemoration, the lapel pins are a recognition for men and women who served in the U.S. Armed Forces both in the Vietnam War and during that era, from 1955 through 1975.
Since the program started, Schneider said he has hosted 10 ceremonies, awarding 450 pins to veterans from the community. With the program ending on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, Saturday’s event was the last.
“Nationally, this commemoration has honored more than 4.4 million Vietnam veterans and their families through more than 29,000 events,” Schneider said. “As a nation, it’s our duty to remember and honor the sacrifice of our service members.”
After awarding the final lapel pin of the day, Schneider became emotional. He said many of the people who served in Vietnam, or were members of the Armed Forces during the war, were treated poorly by members of their community. The conflict was unpopular and divisive at the time.
“Those ceremonies are very special for me,” Schneider said after the event. “We are trying to fix a wrong from 50 years ago. We can’t fully compensate them for the lack of recognition they received. This is something we have to do because we owe it to them.”
Helping Schneider award the pins was U.S. Navy Capt. Steve Yargosz, the commanding officer at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago. With 26 years in the Navy, his military career began in 1999, long after the Vietnam era. Honoring these veterans is important to him.
“I’m very honored to be able to participate in this,” Yargosz said. “These are people who served our country, and to recognize their service is really an honor.”
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Skip Jacobs of Highland Park was another lapel pin recipient. He served in the Army from 1960 to 1965. He said the pin is a recognition for what he did while in the military. Though he did not serve in Vietnam, he said he was trained for a mission behind “enemy lines” during the Cold War.
“I got extremely lucky,” Jacobs said. “I was trained to spy on the Russians. I was to be dropped into East Germany to listen and learn what they were doing. I was on my own to get back. They cancelled the mission.”
Richard Loisel of Waukegan was a pin recipient who served in the U.S. Navy from 1957 through 1959 as a boiler tender aboard a destroyer ship. When he learned about the lapel pins, he wanted one. Though he served off the coast of Vietnam, he said he was one of the fortunate ones.
“I felt safe on the ship,” Loisel said.
Serving in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1964 to 1967, Cleveland Tyson, now a Bannockburn resident, was a field radio operator serving a tour in Vietnam. He said he joined to serve his country and is honored to have his lapel pin.
Returning home, he became a police officer in Chicago, went to law school at night and practiced law for 40 years.