Skip to content

Articles about Military

="soldiers

Bloomington inescapably linked to Springfield Race Riot

 By Bill Kemp. Published on August 10, 2014.
The Springfield Race Riot of August 14-15, 1908, when thousands of white residents rampaged through the city’s black areas destroying l...
="14

Taps for last Bloomington Civil War veteran in 1940

 By Bill Kemp. Published on September 14, 2014.
Today the median age of Korean War veterans is 88 years old, and as the ranks of these old soldiers get increasingly thinner there will...
=""

WW I freighter ‘Evergreen City’ named for Bloomington

 By Bill Kemp. Published on February 5, 2017.
At the end of World War I, Bloomington citizens were given the honor of having a freighter named for their fair city. The...
=""

Campaign to aid Britain comes to Bloomington

 By Bill Kemp. Published on February 19, 2017.
On Dec. 5, 1940, two of Bloomington’s favorite sons returned home to call upon Americans to support Great Britain in her greatest hour ...
=""

Four Burger brothers served in World War I

 By Bill Kemp. Published on April 9, 2017.
This past week marked the 100th anniversary of the American entry into World War I, though for the other main combatants the unpreceden...
="The

County jail too often destination for troubled souls

 By Bill Kemp. Published on April 23, 2017.
On Sept. 25, 1857, John Houseman, a German immigrant “deranged for some months,” committed suicide by hanging himself at the McLean Cou...
=""

‘Black Devils’ earned fame in WW I

 By Bill Kemp. Published on April 30, 2017.
During World War I, several dozen Bloomington-Normal residents fought in an African-American regiment that earned a reputation for brav...
=""

Julia Vrooman brought jazz to WW I doughboys

 By Bill Kemp. Published on September 24, 2017.
“Julia Scott Vrooman has always been in the news,” noted The Pantagraph in early October 1976. The occasion was her 100th...
=""

ISNU welcomed veterans after WWII

 By Bill Kemp. Published on October 22, 2017.
After World War II, Illinois State Normal University put out the welcome mat for returning soldiers and sailors looking to reintegrate ...
="Killed

Fallen sons repatriated after World War II

 By Bill Kemp. Published on May 27, 2018.
In the years following World War II, the remains of tens of thousands of American war dead returned stateside for reburial in hometown ...
="Although

Pullman Strike left Twin Cities at standstill

 By Bill Kemp. Published on September 16, 2018.
On July 3, 1894, area residents flocked to the Chicago & Alton Railroad on Bloomington’s west side. They came to support striking r...
=""

Memorial tablet honors ‘Great War’ dead

 By Bill Kemp. Published on November 18, 2018.
One hundred years ago today, November 11, 1918, the guns in Europe fell silent after more than four years of unrelenting carnage. World...
="A

Central Illinois final resting place for once-enslaved persons

 By Bill Kemp. Published on March 17, 2019.
The stain of slavery pervades the American experience, dating well before the nation’s founding to the present. Yet the all-encompassin...
="Gulf,

West side Subway Club earned notoriety in late ’50s

 By Bill Kemp. Published on May 5, 2019.
Try as he might, Bloomington Mayor Robert McGraw could not close the Subway Club, an afterhours “set-up” joint on the city’s west side ...
="color

Long-gone Franklin Park monument dedicated 150 years ago

 By Bill Kemp. Published on June 16, 2019.
On June 17, 1869—150 years ago this week—area residents packed Bloomington’s Franklin Park to dedicate a monument to the more than 700 ...
=""

Harvey Hogg early martyr to Union cause

 By Bill Kemp. Published on August 18, 2019.
The Civil War was a brutal, decidedly unromantic slog. By its cruel end, as Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee’s armies blackened the V...
=""

Halloween 1945 followed world war’s end

 By Bill Kemp. Published on October 20, 2019.
World War II still loomed large over American life during the Halloween season of 1945. The surrender of Japan marking the war’s end ha...
="Two

Dr. E.D. Churchill, savior to wounded GIs

 By Bill Kemp. Published on December 8, 2019.
Winning a war is not only about killing—it’s also about saving lives, especially if those lives are wounded soldiers fighting on your s...
=""

Donated Vrooman letter speaks to wartime loss

 By Bill Kemp. Published on October 10, 2021.
Faced with the enormity of the Second World War, it’s often difficult to put a human face on the horror. “One death is a tragedy, a mil...
="a

War’s end makes Christmas ’45 extra special

 By Bill Kemp. Published on November 22, 2024.
On Dec. 22, 1945, President Harry Truman switched on the twinkling lights of the nation’s Christmas tree. This White House ceremony, no...