Bridgeport’s Lill, thousands of military honored at Freedom Run

By Patrick Butler

Analyses of the War on Terror abound in the media and in political discussions, but in downstate Marseilles recently more than 20,000 motorcyclists were more interested in remembering with love and respect the more than 7,000 members of the U.S. military killed fighting terrorism since the 1984 bombing of U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. The deceased military personnel are honored on the Middle East Conflicts Wall in Marseilles.

“Obviously, we have more pressing issues [than politics], like how to get over our losses,” said Anthony Lill, the father of Army Sgt. Eric Lill, who became the first Bridgeport fatality of the Iraq War a year ago when he was killed by a roadside bomb in Baghdad.

“Our children and spouses still have friends over there,” Anthony Lill noted. “And a lot of people don’t want to talk bad about it. Maybe analyzing the war will be something we’ll get around to years from now.”

Lill and his family live in Tennessee, but Eric Lill is buried in Illinois because “this was his home; we knew he’d rather have been buried here,” Anthony Lill said. Lill was one of an estimated 200 to 300 relatives of U.S. military personnel killed in the War on Terror who attended the annual Freedom Run, a tradition started in 2003 with a ceremony in St. Anne, IL. St. Anne was chosen that first year because it was the home of Army Capt. Ryan Beaupree, the first American killed in the Iraq War, said Tom Yarber, the ceremony’s coordinator.

In that first Freedom Run, “We were hoping to get 700 bikes, but it turned out to be around 7,000,” Yarber said, adding that organizers decided to move the event and put the Middle East Conflicts Wall Memorial in Marseilles because “the river made a great backdrop. It’s a very pretty sight.”

Guest speakers in past years have included Illinois Lt. Gov. Pat  Quinn, who tries to attend as many funerals of Illinois military personnel killed in action as possible, and Army Maj. Gen. William Kirkland, a senior commander in Afghanistan.

Sometimes, however, there are no officials. As the families are allowed to take center stage, “I can kind of tell there are going to be a lot of stories being told,” Yarber said. “And with the heat, we try to keep the entire ceremony to two hours.”

The wall and putting on the annual rites continue mostly through “small donations and a lot of hard work from all kinds of people— veterans, non-veterans, families, friends, anyone,” Yarber said. Relatives who can be located by the planning committee, including Anthony Lill, read the names inscribed on the wall.

“It’s sometimes hard to get that kind of information from the government,” Yarber said. “This year various family members read the names of the more than 700 killed in action in the past year. Lill read 22 names, including his son’s. “We plan to do this indefinitely,” said Yarber, adding that planning for next year’s ceremony and related events began as soon as this one ended.

In addition to the Marseilles ceremony itself, the Illinois Freedom Run Committee holds a special day at the wall exclusively for Gold Star Mothers, “with a barbeque and sunset prayers led by priests as well as guys from the Christian Motorcycle Association,” Yarber said.

Like Anthony Lill, Yarber believes the Marseilles ceremony is no place to take a position on the war, but only to honor the fallen. Still, that does not mean everyone who shows up believes American troops belong in Iraq. Even Anthony Lill admits he personally never supported the war—only his son’s decision to serve.

“He was Regular Army—joined in 2002,” Anthony Lill said of his son, a St. Laurence High School graduate who went on to Marshall University in Huntington, WV, hoping eventually to become a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. Ironically, the Army rejected him for being 50 pounds overweight the first time he tried to join. Not taking no for an answer, the aspiring military policeman (MP) spent the next four months dropping the pounds needed to get into the Army.

“By the time he got in, there were no more slots in the MPs, so he ended up in the artillery,” Anthony Lill said.

After his first tour of duty in Iraq, Eric Lill was sent to Germany and assigned to an outfit scheduled to go to Iraq in six months. He transferred to the 2nd Infantry at Ft. Carson, CO, to be closer to his children, Mikayla, four, and Cody, six, only to get shipped back to Baghdad with a unit that was to train Iraqi police.

Anthony Lill plans to attend a Gold Star Families event in Washington in September and remains active with a Gold Star families support group that helps its 80 members get through some often difficult days. His advice to new members? “If you  feel sadness, don’t hold it in because it will eat you up,” Lill said. “The only thing you can do is keep their memories alive, how important they were. Keep their spirits alive.”