(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Like many Gold Star family members, Kaki Newgard has seen the traveling exhibit “Portrait of a Soldier.”
“It’s majestic and emotional every time I see it,” she said.
The display features more than 300 portraits of service men and women from Illinois who have been killed in action since September 2001.
The fallen heroes include Newgard’s son, Army Pfc. William Newgard, who was killed in Baghdad in 2006.
“He was responsible for driving high-ranking officers to and from the airport. So, on that day, he was in a caravan driving to the airport and they strategically put his vehicle in the back, but something went awry and his vehicle hit an IED and he was killed instantly,” Kaki Newgard said.
For the first time, the exhibit is on display in her son’s hometown at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.
Newgard said that brings added meaning to the memorial: “To have Will on there is wonderful for me. Nobody will forget.”
Paul and Joy Syverson felt a sense of nostalgia revisiting their son's portrait.
Joy Syverson said her son did “many book reports here, right in this library, and he thought Arlington Heights was the greatest.”
Army Maj. Paul Syverson III graduated from John Hersey High School in 1989. After joining the U.S. Army Special Forces, he was one of the first soldiers to be deployed to Afghanistan following the attack on 9/11.
He was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade in Baghdad at age 32.
"He was very patriotic," Paul's father said. "He loved his country."
The exhibit will be on display at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library through the end of the month.
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