Pat Dollard | Young Americans

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/

By Amy McCullough - Staff writer

Chicago is home to eight Medal of Honor recipients and 27 Marine generals, so it is only fitting that the inaugural Marine Week kicks off in the Windy City.

Nearly 2,000 Marines will be scattered throughout Chicago and its outlying suburbs through Sunday, demonstrating equipment, practicing martial arts, conducting wrestling, boxing and volleyball workshops, visiting schools and cleaning local parks as they try to raise awareness in a community that is not necessarily used to a heavy military presence.

“A lot of people always ask me, especially in these times, why we do what we do. This is a chance to show the city that I grew up in what I do,” Lance Cpl. Ryan Nolan of the 2nd Battalion, 24th Marines, said Monday after the Marine Week dedication ceremony at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago.

Nolan, like many of the other Marines participating in this week’s activities, is a Chicago native. He said he was one of only two people from his graduating high school class to join the military and that he is excited to help educate a community he still considers home what the Corps is all about.

Dozens of Marines stood around the stage listening to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center band from Twentynine Palms, Calif., play patriotic songs. Marine Week Commander Brig. Gen. Melvin Spiese and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley paid tribute to the two gold-star families that shared the stage with them as well as two families of Marines injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the crowd, veterans from Korea, Vietnam and other U.S. conflicts participated in their own ways.

“I’m here to pay respect to my blood brothers. The ones that never made it back,” Korean War veteran Richard Kruppiak said. “It’s going to be quite a shindig.”

The events schedule:
Monday

• Marines volunteer to restore Levin Park (8 a.m.).

• Marine Week Dedication Ceremony at Daley Plaza, headed by Brig Gen. Melvin Spiese, who is a Chicago native and commander of Quantico, Va.-based Training and Education Command (10 a.m.).
Tuesday

• Marines volunteer to restore Riis Park (8 a.m.).

• Performances by the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, “The Commandant’s Own” Marine Drum and Bugle Corps at Oak Park and River Forest High School Stadium (6 p.m.).
Wednesday

• Marines volunteer at Cornerstone Community Outreach Center (8 a.m.).

• Performances by the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon, “The Commandant’s Own” Marine Drum and Bugle Corps at Soldier Field (3 p.m. and 7 p.m.).
Thursday

• Marines volunteer with Habitat for Humanity.
Friday

• Marines appear at Navy Pier all day, with robotics, technology and vehicle displays, Martial Corps Martial Arts Program demonstrations and a performance by the Marine band from the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif.

• Marines appear at Arlington Park racetrack all day, with aviation, technology and vehicle displays.
Saturday

• Marine Band Concert at Navy Pier, Skyline Stage (8 p.m.).

• Marines at Navy Pier all day, with many of the same displays and events featured Friday.

• Marines at Arlington Park racetrack all day, with many of the same displays shown Friday.
Sunday

• Marines at Navy Pier all day, with many of the same displays and events featured Friday and Saturday.

• The Twentynine Palms Marine Band performs from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at Skyline Stage.

• Marines at Arlington Park racetrack all day, with aircraft demonstrations, technology and vehicle displays and performances by the Marine Corps Silent Drill Platoon and “The Commandant’s Own” Marine Drum and Bugle Corps (shows and demonstrations from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.).