U.S. Hero Comes Home to Lake Forest

After a seven-month tour in Afghanistan, Marine Lance Cpl. Patrick O’Leary of Lake Forest was welcomed home over the weekend.

The Illinois Patriot Guard arranged a mission with family and friends, meeting the 24-year-old soldier en route from O’Hare Airport with motorcycles, flags, and a procession of supporters that escorted him up I-94, down Buckley Avenue, to Austin’s Saloon in Libertyville.

“It’s amazing. I can’t even express how it feels, there’s no other feeling,” O’Leary said of being home. “It’s like a breath of fresh air, literally. Especially being in America and having all of these people, friends, and family with me. Even people I don’t know are saying hi and thank you.”

O’Leary and his company worked to seek out and destroy improvised explosive devices, IEDs, or roadside bombs. His squad holds a record for the number of IEDs neutralized.

“This is probably one of our highest-turnout welcome homes,” Patriot Guard member Rob Curcio said of Saturday afternoon’s event. “This is kind of a special one. Obviously they’re all special, but Patrick is doing some very important work.”

The Patriot Guard, a group of American patriots, provides welcome-home events and funeral service escorts for American military at the request of family members.

“With the patriot guard, unfortunately, most of our missions and our priority missions are KIAs,” Curcio said of the organization’s funeral service escorts for soldiers killed in action. “About 65 to 75 percent of our KIAs to date are a result of IEDs, so Patrick’s team is negating IEDs and therefore giving us much more opportunities to do welcome homes and happy missions like this one.”

O’Leary, a Libertyville High School alum whose family resides in Lake Forest, was surrounded Saturday by his mom, dad, three siblings and many supporters.

“It’s been very emotional since the minute we got in the car,” his mother Allie O’Leary said at Austin’s. “I feel very thankful that he’s safe.”

Allie said that she was aware of his mission seeking out IEDs, and said it was difficult knowing he was in danger every day. However, she takes pride in his success and courage.

“I’m very, very proud of him,” she said. “I feel honored that I have a son that enlisted and went on tour. And I actually have another son that’s enlisted and will be going in July.”

Her younger son, John O'Leary, who enlisted in the Marines this spring, said part of the reason he joined was because of his brother. John graduated from LHS on June 3, and will leave for boot camp in July.

“It’s great to have him home,” John said. “He’ll be here for about a month, and that’s the same amount of time that I’ll be here before I leave. So we’re pretty much going at the same time. I’m so proud of him. He’s my hero.”

Lance Cpl. O'Leary will leave in three weeks to start another tour, although he has not been informed where or what his mission will be.

“I joined later, and I’m glad I did,” he said. “I don’t know if I‘ll stay and do the whole 20 years or not. Four years is good right now, but we’ll see. I might really fall in love with it. It’s a great job.”

He is happy that his squad was able to disable such a large number of IEDs, but believes he was just doing his duty.

“We just did our job, and luckily it worked out that way,” he said. “The more you find, the less somebody steps on one and gets hurt.”

Though happy to be home, he says he misses the bomb-sniffing black Labrador retriever, Cheney, who he worked with in Afghanistan. The military dog was trained to aid the soldiers in seeking IEDs.

“He was my motivator. He was a beautiful dog and I miss him,” he said.