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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
IN HONOR OF VETERAN RICHARD A. OLUND’S SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY DURING WORLD WAR II
WHEREAS, Richard Olund was drafted in 1943, just before he was to graduate from Tilden Technical High School in Chicago, where he was a member of St. Basil Parish in the Wrightwood neighborhood; and
WHEREAS, he was assigned to the Army Medical Corps. as a medical technician, and trained in Portland, Tennessee, and Fort Devens, Massachusetts, before being sent to the 108th Evacuation Hospital in Manchester, England; and
WHEREAS, Richard Olund landed on Utah Beach in Normandy, France on July 18, 1944, the day the 3rd Army officially went into action; and
WHEREAS, he was originally assigned to General George Patton’s 3rd Army formation, before being transferred to the 7th Army and later the 9th Army, as he made his way through England, France, Belgium Holland, Germany and Austria during his service, which ended in 1946; and
WHEREAS, an avid photographer to this day, Rich’s prized possession throughout his tour of duty was a small camera brought from home. Throughout his tour of duty, and especially in the ten months he was in Europe after the war, Rich took a lot of photographs, and still has many of them; and
WHEREAS, as a surgical technician and, later, a dental technician, he knew how to develop X-ray photos, and often used the same supplies to develop his photos; and
WHEREAS, one of the many photographs is of Rich at Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest, the mountaintop chalet in Berchtesgaden, Germany, that served as a Nazi retreat, while others are of churches and other buildings damaged in Allied bombings; and
WHEREAS, Rich is compiling an album of his wartime photos with descriptions and more recent photos of the damaged buildings, which have been restored; and
WHEREAS, soon after he returned, Rich married his wife, Dorothy, and together they raised two daughters, Victoria and Claudia; and
WHEREAS, after leaving the war and attending television engineering school, Rich went on to have a 40-year career with General Electric’s television laboratory in Chicago; and
WHEREAS, Rich is seldom without the World War II Army veteran cap that his granddaughter, Rachel, gave him. Listed on it are almost all of the countries he spent time in during the war - England, France, Holland, Germany and Italy; and
WHEREAS, Rich recently returned to Europe for the first time since the war to participate in the 75th Anniversary Commemoration of D-Day on June 6. This time, as a guest of the National World War II Museum on its 75th Anniversary Cruise to Europe. The cruise made stops in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Bruges, Belgium, before making stops along the coast of France, starting in Dunkirk, Calais and Le Havre, and then on to the Normandy region, beginning in Honfleur before visiting the beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold and Sword. Many world leaders were present at the official commemoration on June 6, including President Donald J. Trump, who addressed those in attendance; and
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Cook County Board of Commissioners thank Rich Olund and all those members of the Greatest Generation for their selfless service to our country; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this text be spread upon the official proceedings of the Honorable Body, and an official copy be tendered to Richard Olund in sincere appreciation and acknowledgement of his dedicated service to our great nation.end