Memorial rededicated after names' spelling corrected.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Jacob Nelson
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Friday, September 2, 2011
The unveiling of the war memorial in downtown Highland Park was meant to be momentous occasion for the city. But when family members of three veterans saw their relatives' names on the black, granite monument, they weren't happy. The memorial wall, which since 2006 has sat at the corner of Central and St. Johns, displays the names of 88 Highland Park natives killed in battle. Until June, the names of George Schwalbach, Lyman Benson and Joseph Detmer were misspelled. "I came out to look in 2006 and just assumed it would stay that way," said Judy Schwalbach, one of George's cousins. Fixing the mistake Getting the spellings corrected wasn't easy. Without Joe Wallace, a Highland Parker who moved here after Hurricane Katrina forced him and his …
Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush are excellent in period piece about stammering British royal.
The King's Speech is the type of historical biopic that gives history movies a good name. It's not at all surprising that it's on the Oscar shortlist for several little golden statues. After all, where would Oscar season be without at least one critically well-loved flick about the British monarchy? Make no mistake though, The King's Speech goes well beyond the history genre. The story of a begrudging, mismatched friendship set in a meticulously detailed historical backdrop The King's Speech is more than worthy all the Oscar talk. The film works because it packs a lot of life into a simple but stuffy premise: an unwilling king fears that his nervous stammer will ruin his ability to speak to his people on the eve of World…
Nate Firestone crash landed, parachuted and nearly starved during World War II. Now he lives in Highland Park.
On Aug. 26, 1944, Nate Firestone watched his plane explode. The plane, Extra Joker, was a B-24 twin-tail four-cylinder bomber carrying the biggest payload in the U.S. Air Force. Ordinarily, Firestone would navigate the Extra Joker, but his crew switched to a bomber with a preferred targeting system and Firestone was manning that bomber's nose turret. "They asked me if I wanted to be in the nose turret, or do the paperwork as navigator," recalled Firestone, 91, a longtime resident of Highland Park. "I figured I'm better off with two machine guns in my hands than with a pencil, so I opted for the nose turret." It was Firestone's 27th mission. Their bomber led the 15th Air Force, with the doomed Joker to their right. German fighter pilots …
