Shaking my head and wondering what Illinois was thinking!!!

Found this on another board and wanted to post this out there so others can see what Illinois is doing to our soldiers and families. I live in Illinois and never heard this on the news or in the newspapers. Come on Illinois this soldier kept his end of the deal and fought for our country!


As many of you know Schuyler Patch who was KIA on 02/24/09 was from my family. When Sky's mom called the VA to inquire about his death benefits from the state (he was National Guard, Illinois) she was told the State of Illinois does not have the money to pay right now, maybe next fiscal year!! This is totally unacceptable and I am asking everyone to write the Governor to see that this is taken care of. Following is the link to the Governors page where you can email him or send a letter. There is also a link to the White House and Our President.
I have also attached the letter I wrote, so feel free to copy and paste, or write your own. I know Sky's family is not the only family going through this horrible loss, then compounded by Government disrespect and errors. I am asking anyone who reads this to send a letter and pass it on to family and friends. We need to make sure that no Soldiers family be put through this after their Child gave their life!!

Thanks

Letters like the one below had been flooded to the Governor's office and the President. Illinois has finally agreed that the check will be issued on 23 May 2009.


Dear Governor Quinn.

On March 7th of this year you attended the funeral of Sergeant Schuyler Patch, in Kewanee, Illinois. In your speech you spoke of him being a hero and his honorable service to The United States and the Illinois National Guard. Schuyler died in Afghanistan while serving in the National Guard from Kewanee, Illinois, and now his parents are being told by the VA that due to the budget crisis in Illinois that the death benefits for the parents of the Soldier Killed in Action are not being paid now, but they will be issued an IOU!
This a complete disregard to not only Schuylers’ memory, but to any soldier who has Volunteered to serve their country in a time of war. How dare the State of Illinois tell grieving parents, “Sorry your Soldier was killed in action, but we can’t pay you for the sacrifice of your Son/Daughter.”

On behalf of the family of Sgt. Schuyler Patch and any other soldier who has or will give their life for their country we insist that this insult and complete lack of respect to all soldiers be rectified immediately, In addition an apology to the families who have been denied death benefits should be issued without delay.

I certainly hope to hear that this is given a priority status and that the State of Illinois is remorseful for causing heartbroken parents more agony in addition to the loss of their Soldier.

He heard freedom’s call,” Army Chaplain (Capt.) Jon Prain told more than 1,000 mourners who filled a school gym for Patch’s funeral in Kewanee, Ill. “He paid freedom’s price. Sgt. Patch could have stayed home. Instead, once again, he volunteered to go.”

This having been said it is a small price for the State of Illinois to give parents death benefits when their child paid the ultimate price of their life. This is not about money which will never bring Schuyler home again, but about doing the right thing!!


Mom of an
IL National Guard Soldier

Prom 2009

Promotion Day

Kris was promoted to PFC today at RSP with the National Guard. The cool part and I wasn't expecting it was that I got to pin his rank on him today. He out processed today for boot camp in June as next months drill weekend falls on his graduation from high school. He's super excited. While we were there a new platoon was getting "smoked" and I was kinda chuckling to myself and thinking I so remember those days! We were going to take Kris out to eat afterwards and he didn't want to go and wanted to ride the military bus back to town so BJ, Hannah & I took Shay (Kris' girlfriend) out to eat to celebrate at Texas Roadhouse.

My Lunch Buddy from work

Since it was nice out I decided to go to the park on my lunch break......

Settling in well

Duce

P&PT for son's girlfriend

My son's girlfriend just lost her mom this morning. Can you please spare some thoughts and prayers for her. She's only 20 with a 14yr old brother and has helped take care of her mom because of her health. She about lost her dad a couple years ago in a bad semi accident. My heart is just breaking for this wonderful girl.

New Addition

BJ picked up his Rottie today. Here's a picture of him a couple of weeks ago. I will post more later when I get a cord to transfer them.

Kris

Kris made PFC this weekend. YAY! Next month is his last drill weekend before he leaves for bootcamp because in May his weekend for drills is when he graduates from High school and Hannah graduates from Pre-school. I can't believe he's old enough to start his own life now. Time has gone way to fast!

Broke Down

I just broke down and bought Hannah this new carseat...

Josh Update

We went to St Louis on Wed for a follow up appt. He had another MRI done and we seen the neurosurgeon's PA. The PA thinks there's a more perdominate area seen on his scan--hopefully its just the image. I also asked the PA if the area in his brain was really that big (as seen on the MRI) and she said yes its 6 in x 2 in. and hasn't grown any---so that good. We still don't know exactly what we are dealing with. We do know its not cancer, not an auto immune disease and the only thing is to keep an eye on it to see if it changes any or his symptoms worsen. Children's is rated in the top for the neuro dept so that gives me a little comfort as I know some things happen and you can't explain every medical issue that arises but it does get frustrating at times still not knowing. Josh is dealing with it OK now and he was with me the whole time I was asking questions so he know we aren't lying to him about anything. (He doesn't understand why they don't know what it is and he thought it was cancer and we weren't telling him) The neurosurgeon won't be back in the office until Mon and we will see what he thinks about the scan.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers that its nothing to worry about.


The roads down there was pretty wicked in the morning and we could only travel 20 mph. We were only about 25 miles from home when we hit a patch of ice and started a pretty good slide to the right with a huge ditch, then we were headed to the left and we ended up doing a 180 on I-74 facing oncoming traffic. It was pretty scary but I was proud of not putting us in either ditch. My 2 older boys who are driving age was pretty impressed with me. Hannah wanted to do it again! Yep my fearless girl! We get close to Effingham when we about rear ended some lady who decides she wants to stop in the middle of the road to back up and get on her exit. I looked in the rear view mirror and all I could see was a semi 3 cars back with his trailer fish tailing and it was even with his cab. I would have felt so bad if he went into the ditch. We seen many cars and semi's in the ditch. Thank God DH's load was cancelled at the last minute (not in time to go with us tho) so I didn't have to worry about him being out in this with that big of a truck. On the way back the roads were clear and you could actually go the speed limit.

Josh's 6 month follow up

We will be heading down to St Louis on 28th Jan for another MRI and to meet with the Neurosurgeon. This is a 6 month follow up from his brain biopsy. Hopefully we will continue to have good news and we see no new lesions on his brain.

Please keep him in your thoughts & prayers!

Hannah Update

Hannah had surgery to have her tonsils and adnoids removed on Jan 9th. She's doing much better and almost to her old self. She will be back in school on Friday barring no set backs. In the meantime she has enjoyed staying home with me and also riding in the semi with her daddy.

I love my brother, my brother loves me. My friend, my hero, he always will be.

Wish us luck!

Our high school football team won the Sweet Sixteen playoffs last Saturday so that puts us in the Elite 8 today. We are heading approx 2 hours south of here to play a team we have beat 3 years in a row however all the strong players were Seniors last year on our team and we are playing on their turf this year.

I would just like to see these Seniors go to state this year and play at the Memorial Stadium (where the Fighting Illini play) for their Senior year. It would mean so much to them.


Keep us in your thoughts today for a win and safe travels to the team and all parents/families who will make this trip.

I will update when we return tonight. Thanks!

Some Senior Pix

Proud older kid moment.......

Just wanted to share that Kris got his first award this past weekend at drills. This is what it says....

Illinois National Guard
First Sergeant Award
presented to Kristofer ------- the professionalism you
displayed reflects great credit upon your unit the
non commissioned offers corps
ILLINOIS NATIONAL GUARD

He was excited. He wasn't able to go down to receive it and salute the First Sgt tho because he was helping with the "Grog" ceremony for the newbies. I told him this will be the first of many he will receive and it will go for points in his next promotion.

Sept 1st High School football

Pictures

Kris, Josh, Hunter & Hannah's 1st day of school

Hannah & Hunter

Hannah's soccer picture

Hunter's football picture

Kris & Josh

Kid Rock

Last night we went to the Kid Rock/Lynard Skynard concert in Noblesville, IN. It was a very awesome concert. He sure can rock the house! Sheryl Crow came out to sing Picture with him also :) No cameras were allowed and I was just a little too far back to get pictures on my phone (which sucks!) We had a nice kid free night out with Dh's boss and his wife. Dh and his boss was feeling pretty good by the time we got there.

Kris swearing in for the National Guard 7/10/08