Friday afternoon: Kevin and I and the rest of Den 6 had a hike through the forest after school today. The eight Cub Scouts raised the flag before the hike and lowered it after the hike. Then Kevin and I left for Carol Stream.

Friday evening: We were able to get there before the daylight failed so I was able to capture flagline portraits. Kevin was awarded a Mission Accomplished pin by Pokey, his flagline neighbor.

We stayed only a short time because we would have to rise early for the funeral the next morning. Kevin fell asleep in the car on the way back. We got home while the first Presidential debate was still unfolding. This was the one on foreign policy.

The candidates have learned over the years that it doesn’t pay to be all statistics & geography. They must be a little folksy too. Senator McCain told a story about the bracelet that he was given by the mother of Corporal Matthew Stanley in August, 2007 and the promise that he made to her: That he would do everything he could to make sure her sons death was not in vain.

Then it was Senator Obama’s turn to speak. McCain had raised a number of points, but the first thing Obama said was, “I have a bracelet, too.”

The “me too” tenor of his comment made me smile, but an instant later I bit my lip. The bracelet was given to him in February of this year by the mother of Ryan Jopek, Tracy. In August, 2007, at her son’s funeral, Mrs. Jopek gave me a yellow ribbon memorial decal that I promptly placed on my bike’s windshield.

It is still there.

~~~

Saturday: This would be the funeral for 19-year old Leonard Gulczynski. He had barely outgrown his childhood name of Lenny – all the people I spoke to who knew him from his high school days called him that. He graduated from Bartlett High School 15 months ago where he played some quarterback.

A month earlier in the same area another high school football star, a lineman, was buried near a football field. The PGR was there.

Lenny’s uncle is the varsity football coach at yet another nearby high school. Lenny died on the 17^th. On the 20^th, his uncle and all others attending the Saturday Oak Park & River Forest vs. Lyons Township game stood for a moment of silence.

It is now one week later. This Saturday, we too would stand silently, remembering him.

Kevin and I planned to sell Cub Scout popcorn Saturday afternoon, and Kevin’s mom worked late on Friday, so I got her permission for him to stay at our house Friday night. Allowing for the distance, the construction on I-294 and for breakfast, I set the alarm for 0500.

When the alarm roused me Kevin rushed in. He had been up for “hours” and wanted to make sure that he had both Mission Accomplished pins (his first was given to him by Greg Bowman) his PGR coin and his Joshua 1:9 dogtag. We had decided not to take the motorcycle because of the distance. (When I mount the big flag, Kevin has to ride in front of me. He now thinks of himself as a full-size passenger who gets his own seat behind me.) Plus, he knows that the bike ride is not the main reason for going.

There were a lot of Warriors’ Watch riders among us.

I was glad to see Pokey roll in.

I admit that I was happy to attend. Yesterday, Kevin and I had a long drive through rush-hour traffic that risked we would arrive after the light failed and photography would be compromised. Since we would leave early in order to rise at 0500, I wondered if the trip were worth the effort. But as soon as we arrived at the visitation, it all felt right and I was glad we were there.

Today for the funeral we had an early start and the popcorn-selling we planned for later was without any schedule. I have no administrative role in the PGR and am free to focus on doing my personal best to support our common purpose. Kevin has been going to funerals as a PGRider since he was three, so he is no burden. And the weather was beautiful.

So these events are more fun for me than a funeral should be. I love these guys. Even the ones I haven’t met.

The State Captain’s nephew visited. He was wearing his “Lean & Mean, just like Grandpa” shirt. When I first met him at that Grandpa’s funeral, he was wearing another Grandpa shirt.

This is Todd’s sister.

They returned to their nearby home after a short visit. And that is right. A funeral is not an opportunity for a family outing. It says that right in our Mission Statement: “Show our sincere respect…”

A baby doesn’t know how to do that, so babies are disqualified from participation in our flagline. Kevin knows, so he is qualified.

Kevin began standing in flaglines before he could ride his bicycle. For me, the last 2 ½ years of participation are less than 5 percent of my lifetime. For Kevin, those same 2 ½ years are 40 percent of his lifetime. Standing amid PGRiders is as natural to him as watching Sprouts on TV.

And the first rule he learned is that PGRiders carry their own flags. Sometimes I make exceptions for myself and hand-off my flag so I can use the camera better. There are no exceptions for Kevin.

Same for Ethan, it seems.

It is a great benefit to me that Kevin can take care of himself, and that I know the three dozen other PGRiders are taking care of him too. Yesterday when I was running out of light, I dropped him at the flagline and drove on to park the car. By the time I returned, he had his flag and his place in line. Same today.

And same for Ethan,

and Ethan’s big brother.

Before the family arrived, the priest came out to welcome us and thank us.

As I was standing nearby the flagline looking for targets of opportunity and waiting for the moment when I would set down my camera and take up my flag, I was greeted by a gentleman from his car window as he backed next to my car. No limousine – Lieutenant Governor Patrick Quinn drove himself today.

The Loo Guv make a point of attending every military funeral in his state, and shaking every PGRider’s hand at each one. So I have seen him many times and photographed him many times. Usually in the past he has skipped me, probably thinking I am from a newspaper. This time, after he went down one side and back up the other, he turned to me and I got this picture. Then he shook my hand for the first time and went inside.

So that was cool.

But that was not the coolest part. Later, on the way home, Kevin asked me about the Lieutenant Governor and about business cards. To the latter I said they were a way to give someone your big, long phone number without having to write it down. “Well he gave me this. Does that mean I can call the boss of Illinois anytime I want?”

Lieutenant Governor Quinn had given Kevin his business card, like a challenge coin.

So he turned in his flag and sat and hydrated.

At home we have a drink of water. On PGR missions, we hydrate.

The many people who would attend Lenny’s funeral mass had filed past our flags and were seated inside. This is the time we usually just wait. But Kevin was needed.

He wore his Cub Scout hat yesterday and again today. He is in First Grade, so he is a Tiger Cub. Or rather, he will earn his Tiger Cub patch after he earns enough honor beads like those below.

The eight boys of Den 6 will earn the beads of various colors for doing various good things. Pokey created a string of beads of the same colors and presented it to Kevin.

Pokey tells me that his grandchildren are 500 miles away.

So we attached them to his dogtags and he was down with that.

Two-thirds of our number would remain until the end of the service and then lead the procession to the cemetery.

Kevin and I followed the one-third that would go in advance to the cemetery so that we would be in position as the others arrive.

The bikes of our detail were led by Wolfman,

and (appropriately) trailed by Pokey.

Kevin and I trailed Pokey.

Wolfman put half of us near the gravesite and the other half at the entrance to the cemetery.

The bugler (using a trumpet) practiced near our resting flags.

And the other soldiers rehearsed.

A Brigadier General aided by a Captain and a Sergeant Major represented the United States Army at the funeral of PFC Gulczynski but the face of the army was the seven enlisted soldiers who fired three volleys for Lenny and folded Lenny’s flag.

He was only in the army for one year, but it was his last year.

So when the two-thirds rolled in, I set down my camera and joined Kevin in the flagline.

We stood in our Circle of Comfort as the priest spoke and the soldiers performed. Then Kevin and I got back in the car intending the fastest ride home so that we could sell some popcorn.

Kevin is good at it. He talks easily and purposefully. He closes the deal at a majority of the doors answered. Door-to-door popcorn sales are the primary way Cub Scout packs finance themselves, and the experience of talking to people at their doors is good for the boys.

So we left the cemetery and turned north and got a half-mile.

The cemetery is across the street from Cantigny. There were only a few seconds after I saw the sign until we reached the entrance. In those few seconds, our popcorn plans were abandoned.

We walked to the Tank Park, which is well-named. It is a park with trees and grass and a stream and it has tanks parked all over the place.

The nap on the way home was cancelled.

The neighborhood canvass was postponed.

The early return to Mommy would be a little later.

We went into the First Division Museum. The last time I was there, I was a Boy Scout and the museum provided the experience of walking through World War I trenches. (WWI was when the 1^st Division fought in the French town of Cantigny.) Now it offered experiences for WWI, WWII, the Cold War and Vietnam. (It cost $8 to park and nothing more to climb on the tanks or walk through the museum.) After the museum, we (he) climbed on the tanks some more.

And then we left. It was unplanned good fortune that Kevin could see the museum that I saw when I was his age when my family lived nearby. I headed east on Roosevelt Road but (again) didn’t get far.

The Seven Dwarfs restaurant has been operating for 50 years. Like Cantigny, the last time I ate there I was Kevin’s age.

When I saw the big mural on the wall, I remembered going there after church.

For dessert, Kevin had a concoction that started with a brownie, had a scoop of vanilla ice cream on that, hot fudge over that, then whipped cream and finally two cherries.

Since this was our day, there was no reason to take the fast roads home. I went past my two childhood homes in Glen Ellyn, this one three blocks west of Lake Ellyn. It’s a big house but we were a big family. My room was the attic. It was accessible by folding stairs that pulled down from the ceiling. I could go halfway up and reach back with my toes to fold the stairs up behind myself.

I was sixteen when my family moved from Glen Ellyn, five years after we moved into that house and four years after my father died. Those are the early landmarks of my life.

Cantigny, the Seven Dwarfs restaurant and Kevin had reminded me of what I had when I was sixteen, just three years younger than Lenny’s death age. That was forty years ago.

I have had those forty years. Lenny will not have them. He didn’t just sacrifice his life, he sacrificed his lifetime.

At the end of Saving Private Ryan as Captain John Miller dies, he says to James Francis Ryan, “Earn this.”

Live right. We owe it to Lenny.

photo album one Friday visitation and gathering at the church on Saturday morning.

photo album two Waiting and briefings and then most of the flagline portraits.

photo album three Priest & Lieut. Governor visit flagline, then some leave for cemetery.

photo album four Soldiers at the cemetery, then across the street to Cantigny.

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