RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, James Phillips, a veteran of the Korean War, led the Chicago City Council in the Pledge of Allegiance on December 9, 2015; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips proudly hails from a family that has deep roots in Chicago history; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips is a descendant of Constable James Quinn, who in 1853 became the first Chicago police officer to die in the line of duty; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips' great-grandfather, Thomas O'Brien, was a soldier for the Union Army who was captured at the Battle of Chickamauga during the Civil War; and
WHEREAS, The story has long been handed down through the family's oral history how Thomas O'Brien fled the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 with his family in a wagon, just ahead of the flames, and immersed themselves in Lake Michigan off Fullerton Avenue as they watched the City burn; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips' godfather, John F. O'Keefe, was a founder of the legendary City News Bureau of Chicago and the publisher of the Chicago Daily News during the 1940s; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips' grandfather, John J. O'Brien, was a Chicago Police Captain who commanded the old Racine Avenue District; and
WHEREAS, Raised near Clark and Granville in St. Gertrude's Parish, James Phillips graduated from Loyola Academy and Loyola University; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips enlisted in the United States Navy at the age of 21 shortly after graduating from college; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips was assigned to a destroyer task force based out of Newport, Rhode Island and served in the North Atlantic fleet; and
WHEREAS, As a Lieutenant, James Phillips participated in shipboard training and an array of other duties and assignments in the North Atlantic Theater of Operations; and
WHEREAS, After his honorable discharge, James Phillips began a lifelong association with the Naval War College Foundation, a mid-rank level strategic tactical and training college located in Newport, Rhode Island; and
WHEREAS, James Phillips spent the next 40 y...
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