McHenry County Blog

When I was running for McHenry County Treasurer in 1966 and State Rep. in the 1070′s, Woodstock had a VJ Day Parade.

The VJ stood for Victory in Japan.

I don’t know what year the parade ended, but at least the Chicago Tribune remembers that September 2nd is an important day in United States history.

Thanks to photos taken by the doctor whom now-deceased Wonder Lake Pharmacist Mate Sully Sullivan brought back from World War II , I can share parts of the day with you.

The Japanese surrender was a big deal for McHenry County. Until relatively recently, Woodstock held an annual VJ Day Parade. Click to enlarge any photo.

The Japanese signatories of the unconditional surrender documents approach the table.

The humiliated Japanese officials leave the surrender ceremony.

You can see the other photos Donald B. Sullivan brought home, as well as Sullivan’s obituary here.

Jack Franks has decided to update his campaign web site.

Gone is the photo of him, Barack Obama and Melissa Bean.

Sometime since last September, this photograph of Barack Obama with Jack Franks and Melissa Bean disappeared from "Chainsaw Jack" Franks' web site.

He didn’t take the photo down after Joe Walsh won a squeaker of an election against Bean, for whom Franks knocked on doors.

The McHenry County Republican Party hoisted a white flag to Democrat State Rep. Jack Franks last weekend.

But now we got a Presidential election coming up and Franks obviously thinks identification of his party’s top elected official will not help him in McHenry County.

Remaining are photos of

• Franks and kids holding up certificates,
• Franks and teens wearing his tee shirts, Franks and a teenage girl in the same tee shirt in front of what looks like a Melissa Bean banner,
• Franks holding a basket in the Woodstock Square with a little girl and her mother looking into it,
• Franks in the WIND interview by Dennis Miller in which Miller chides Franks for being opposed to term limits,

But the photo with President Obama is gone.

Maybe it was because he couldn’t photo shop Melissa Bean out of the image.

Why that would matter to him now that the McHenry County Republican Party has hoisted the white surrender flag after seeing him fly his “Jolly Jack” is beyond me.

Some images I have collected concerning Veterans:

A Civil War soldier stands atop a pillar in front of the Boone County Courthouse.

Civil War Soldier in the Woodstock City Square.

McHenry County Vietnam War Memorial

Did you know the Northwest Tollway, re-named by Rod Blagojevich as the Jane Addams Tollway, is also called the Veterans Memtorial Tollway?

A ribbon of remembrance for 178th Infantry Sgt. Robert Weinger, killed in Afghanistan on March 15, 2009.

The Greatest Generation reached their goal as the Japanese surrendered.

And, if you would like to see want World War II was like in the Pacific theater, I invite you to see the photos Wonder Lake’s Sully Sullivan brought back from some of the most vicious fighting of the war. The photographs, not all of which are for the faint of heart, include a broader view of the one one you see above of the signing of the unconditional surrender by the Japanese, among many others the physician who supervised this Pharmacists Mate.