Pat Barcas/staff photographer
Montgomery resident Herschel Luckinbill accepted the Illinois Veteran of the Month award, which was presented by the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, for his dedication, support and love of all veterans.
By Pat Barcas
Staff writer
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Email Pat Barcas at pat@foxvalleylabornews.com
AURORA — Aurora Mayor Tom Weisner said it all June 23 when talking about Herschel Luckinbill: “A veteran could have no greater friend than you.” One could almost feel the breeze of all the heads in the crowd nodding in agreement, as Luckinbill emotionally accepted the Illinois Veteran of the Month award, an accolade earned through years of hard work helping veterans in any way, shape or form he could.
“We brought the Vietnam Wall to Aurora to honor my shipmates, and it was like me getting to spend five days with those two gentlemen who lost their lives that day,” said Luckinbill on stage at the Prisco Center in Aurora.
Pat Barcas/staff photographer
Veterans take time to view various albums of newspaper clippings and photographs, as well as awards, from Montgomery resident Herschel Luckinbill.
Luckinbill served aboard the USS O’Brien as a Machinist Mate, surviving a near miss in 1966 as the ship was shelled by hostile North Vietnamese shore batteries. Two of his fellow sailors were killed in the attack, while Luckinbill survived a near miss.
He completed his enlistment, having earned the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with three bronze stars, and the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal.
After leaving the Navy, Luckinbill became a union sprinkler fitter in the Chicago-area Fire Protection industry for 41 years, retiring in 2005. He keeps in constant motion serving veterans, such as the effort to bring the Vietnam Moving Wall exhibit to Aurora, and as a major fundraiser and escort for Honor Flight, escorting elderly veterans on 25 trips to Washington D.C., and serving as President of the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club.
“This crowd says volumes of the community respect for Herschel,” said Erica Borggren, Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, who presented him with the honor.”
Pat Barcas/staff photographer
A packed house at Aurora’s Prisco Center congratulated Luckinbill on his Illinois Veteran of the Month award.
“The narrative of veterans in the media is incomplete. You hear of the struggling veteran, which is certainly true, but there are so many other veterans. Ones like Herschel didn’t leave their ethic of service when they took the uniform off,” Borggren explained.
Luckinbill joked that he wasn’t quite sure he was receiving the award, and had to piece it together when he got the phone call.
“They said, ‘Didn’t you sign the piece of paper?’ I wasn’t sure.”
Luckinbill said his wife of 47 years, Eva, had asked him to sign a paper, but couldn’t tell him what it was for. He put his trust in his wife.
“She said, ‘You have to sign this but you can’t ask me any questions.’ And I said, yes, I think I did sign it, but I didn’t know what I was signing,” he said.
The move paid off, and Luckinbill got a great surprise when he got the phone call from the IDVA.
Mayor Weisner said Luckinbill is a treasure to the community.
“I’ve watched Herschel in action for the last decade, and he’s simply amazing,” said Weisner. “In the last year, he brought us the Healing Field and the Moving Wall, and it’s really a piece of history for Aurora and the city’s veterans.”