Illinois
Top general for Illinois National Guard retiring after joining military nearly 40 years ago
A little over five years ago, Maj. Gen. Richard Neely took the Illinois National Guard flag in a chain of command ceremony.
On May 4, Neely, the adjutant general for Illinois and commander of the Illinois National Guard, will be giving the flag back, marking his retirement from the military after nearly 40 years of service.
“It’s the symbology of one leader giving the flag up and one leader taking the flag,” Neely said, referring to his successor, Maj. Gen. Rodney Boyd, the assistant adjutant general. “One…of my priorities was to ensure the continuity of leadership.
“Our organization won’t miss a beat when that flag is passed.”
The appointment of Boyd by Gov. JB Pritzker, who serves as commander-in-chief of the Illinois National Guard, makes history.
The Chicago native will be the first Black officer and person of color to command the guard, which includes about 13,000 soldiers and airmen and about 2,500 other federal and state employees.
Neely, a 57-year-old native of Easton, about an hour northwest of Springfield, has presided over one of the busiest times in the 301-year history of the Illinois National Guard.
Col. Bradford Leighton, a spokesman for the Illinois National Guard, pointed out that personnel supported 17 different domestic operations in 2020 and 2021. During the previous decade, it supported 13 domestic responses.
Addressing COVID
The largest domestic operation activation in Illinois National Guard history came in response to the COVID pandemic. That’s when personnel performed 250,000 tests, delivered 8 million masks and administered 2 million vaccines.
“We’re not always the experts,” Neely admitted, “but we can help with large tasks. We can organize. We can prepare large logistics issues. That’s what COVID brought us.”
With testing and later with vaccinations, the Guard became a model for delivery.
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“I was happy I was the one in the seat during COVID because it was a significant event,” Neely said. “I thought my experience helped me step through that process. We had a good team, but leadership needs to understand it quickly, make decisions and move out on things.”
Deploying around the world
For the last two decades, the Illinois National Guard has been more of “an operational reserve (where in the past we were considered a strategic reserve,” Neely said.
That means personnel are deployed all the time.
“At any one time, 8 to 10% of 13,000 soldiers and airmen are deployed around the world doing global operations,” Neely said. “Before 9/11, that wasn’t so much the case.”
During Neely’s tenure, there have been almost 5,000 personnel federally deployed to 21 countries.
There’s a large presence in Eastern Europe, including Poland, “to ensure violence doesn’t extend out of Ukraine,” Neely said.
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The Illinois National Guard has had a relationship with the Polish military for 30-plus years through the State Partnership Program developed with Poland 30 years ago. It came about, Neely said, because of the Chicago area’s large Polish population.
While there are over 100 partnerships in 87 different countries, the Guard and Poland can claim “the gold standard,” Neely said.
Several years ago, Poland started a Territorial Defense Force, a light version of a National Guard, and Poles have been studying in Springfield to see how the Illinois National Guard trains its soldiers and officers.
In 2022, Neely was awarded the Polish Commanders Cross with Silver Star Order of Merit by President Andrjez Duda.
“The recognition was about the entire organization,” Neely said.
In retirement
Neely said he started his military career “at the very bottom,” joining the Army Reserves the summer before his senior year of high school.
Neely, who later slid over to the Air Force side of the Illinois National Guard, joked that the military is “the family business.” Neely’s identical twin brother served in the military as did Neely’s three kids.
Admittedly, he never envisioned sitting in the adjutant general’s seat.
“This is me winning the Lotto 10 times over to be able to lead at the end of my career,” Neely said.
A cybersecurity expert, Neely said he envisioned doing some national security work on the side in retirement.
“But it won’t be full time,” he said. “I promised my family I would pull back on the throttle.”
Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788; sspearie@sj-r.com; X, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) — After a brief lull in the weather on Friday, now another winter storm is setting its sights on central Illinois. Come Saturday, our next round of Winter is set to arrive. A new weather maker sweeps across the Upper Midwest, causing more snow to develop by mid-morning on Saturday. A Winter Weather Advisory has been issued from 7AM Saturday through 8 PM Saturday evening. The snow will pick up intensity by late-morning and last through the afternoon into the early evening hours before ending. This new weather system will follow a path very similar to the previous storm system and spread a swath of moderate to locally heavy snow. Before the snow wraps up Saturday evening, expect another 2″-4″ for much of central Illinois, with afternoon high temperatures bitterly cold in the mid-teens.
But the worst blast of cold air comes in Saturday evening into Sunday. Frigid Arctic air surges down from Canada causing temperatures to really tumble, driving in the coldest weather we’ve had in a long time and certainly the coldest so far this season. A Cold Weather Advisory is issued from 8 PM Saturday through Noon on Sunday. Sunday morning will be dangerously cold with wind chills around 20 to 25 BELOW ZERO. With wind chills this extreme, it doesn’t take long to suffer from frostbite or hypothermia. Please stay inside to keep warm, but if you do need to venture out, limit the time you spend outdoors, and make sure to cover up all exposed skin by wearing a hat, scarf, and gloves. Sunday afternoon features lots of sunshine, but despite the sunshine, temperatures will be brutally cold and frigid with high temperatures stuck in the low single numbers while wind chills remain well below zero.
Expect more extremely chilly weather on Monday with wind chills still ranging from 5 to 15 BELOW ZERO in the morning and afternoon highs only reaching into the 20s. Then temperatures will finally start to warm up, and we should climb out of the deep freeze with highs in the mid to upper 30s on Tuesday.
Gov. JB Pritzker signed a new law Friday making Illinois the newest state allowing medically assisted dying in terminally ill residents.
Known as “Deb’s Law,” it allows eligible terminally ill adults with a prognosis to live six months or less to request a prescription from their doctor that would allow them to die on their own terms.
The legislation was narrowly approved by the Illinois Senate in October after the Illinois House passed it in May.
People on both sides of the debate over the controversial legislation lobbied the governor up until the last minute. Medical aid in dying, also called assisted suicide or dying with dignity, is already legal in 12 states. Eight more are considering similar legislation.
“I have been deeply impacted by the stories of Illinoisans or their loved ones that have suffered from a devastating terminal illness, and I have been moved by their dedication to standing up for freedom and choice at the end of life in the midst of personal heartbreak,” Pritzker said in a news release after signing the bill.
Pritzker’s signature makes Illinois the first state in the Midwest to allow medically assisted death.
Advocates for the law say it allows adults to die on their own terms when survival is already not an option. Opponents say the bill legalizes “state-sanctioned suicide.”
The law requires two doctors to determine a patient has a terminal disease and will die within six months. The medication provided would need to be requested both orally and in written documentation, and will have to be self-administered. The law also requires all patients opting into medical assistance in dying to have been full informed about all end-of-life care options, including comfort care, hospice, palliative care and pain control.
The law is named for Deb Robertson, a former social worker from Lombard who had an aggressive case of neuroendocrine carcinoma. She began advocating for medical aid in dying in 2022 and has been a central figure in the movement.
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Illinois
Advocates, opponents seek to sway Gov. JB Pritzker on medical aid in dying legislation passed by Illinois General Assembly
Illinois could soon join a growing list of states where terminally ill patients would be allowed to take life-ending medication prescribed by a doctor.
The Illinois Senate narrowly approved the “medical aid in dying” legislation in October, after the Illinois House passed it in May, and the legislation is now sitting on Gov. JB Pritzker’s desk.
Pritzker has not said if he’ll sign it, and the controversial legislation has people on both sides trying to bend the governor’s ear.
Medical aid in dying, also called assisted suicide or dying with dignity, is legal in 12 states, with eight others considering similar legislation.
If Pritzker allows the “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” passed by the Illinois General Assembly to become law, Illinois could be the first state in the Midwest to allow medical aid in dying.
Suzy Flack, whose son Andrew died of cancer, is among the advocates urging the governor to sign the bill.
Diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2017 in his home state of Illinois, three years later Andrew moved to California, where medical aid in dying is legal, and chose to end his life in 2022.
“He died on his own terms, peacefully. We were all there to see it and embrace him at that moment, and it was really a beautiful thing,” Suzy said. “His last words were, ‘I’m happy. Please sign this. Allow people in Illinois this option.’”
Illinois is on the brink of joining a growing number of states that allow doctors to prescribe a mixture of lethal medication for terminally ill patients.
Outside the governor’s Chicago office on Thursday, many disability advocates, religious leaders, lawmakers, and doctors have called on Pritzker to veto the bill that would legalize what they call state-sanctioned suicide
“The question becomes where do you draw the line in the medical ethics dilemmas?” one physician who identified himself as Dr. Pete said. “We don’t need to go to this crossing of a red line of actually providing a means to directly end life.”
Republican Illinois state Sen. Chris Balkema said he “would really appreciate it if the governor would veto this bill.”
“My plea is that we veto this; come back with language that is constructive on both sides,” he said.
Pritzker has he is reviewing the legislation and is listening to advocates on both sides before deciding whether to sign it.
“It’s a hard issue, and I don’t want anybody to think making up your mind about this is very easy. It’s not. There’s a lot to consider, but most of all it’s about compassion,” he said. “There’s evidence and information on both sides that leads me to think seriously about what direction to go.”
The Illinois legislation would require two doctors to determine that a patient has a terminal disease and will die within six months. The medication provided to terminally ill patients would need to be requested both orally and in written form, and would have to be self-administered.
The bill was sent to Pritzker on Nov. 25, and he has 60 days from then to either sign it, amend it and send it back to lawmakers, veto it, or allow it to become law without his signature.
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