The six-player trade sent Lucas Carlsson and Lucas Wallmark to Florida in exchange for Brett Connolly, Henrik Borgstrom, Riley Stillman and a 7th round pick.
The post Blackhawks Execute Six-Player Trade with Florida first appeared on CHI CITY SPORTS l Chicago Sports Blog – News – Forum – Fans – Rumors.Read More
Blackhawks Execute Six-Player Trade with FloridaMike Con April 10, 2021 at 3:46 am Read More »
There are no restrictions to shopping or important decisions. The moon is in Aries.
What a difference a day makes! Today you have a happy balance between feelings sociable and optimistic, and, yet, you’re also in a practical, sensible frame of mind. You might seek out the advice of someone older or more experienced. Overall, it’s a great day!
You are happy because you have a feel-good feeling in your tummy. It’s that simple. You might choose to enjoy your own privacy because it’s a good day to do research and dig for some practical information that you want to know. Some kind of group support is reassuring.
You love your adoring peanut gallery and today is no exception. Enjoy schmoozing with others, especially younger people and creative, artistic types. You’ll be happy to relate to groups and clubs. Meanwhile, a discussion with someone older, perhaps a teacher figure, might help you.
You continue to look good in the eyes of others, and, likewise, you continue to make a great impression on everyone. That’s why this is a great day to talk to bosses, parents, VIPs and anyone off import. Practical financial matters can be settled. Meanwhile, a group might endorse you. Looking good!
Some of you have an opportunity to travel. Others will explore wonderful opportunities in publishing, the media, the law and medicine — perhaps even higher education. This is also an excellent day to study even though you want to jump in the car and watch the world go by.
Things are look good financially! This is the perfect day do discuss inheritances, shared property or taxes. You won’t overlook details and you will be thorough. Meanwhile, you can benefit from the wealth of others today. Money can come to you! (Romance is hot as well.)
This is a glorious day to enjoy the company of others because everyone’s in a great mood. Not only are people light-hearted and friendly to each other, people are also willing to discuss practical, serious matters and make long-range plans. This means you can go either way. Serious or fun.
This is a productive day for you, in part because you are happy to work and get a lot done. In particular, you will work well with a group. In addition to this, you are also ready to roll up your sleeves and work with energy to be as useful as possible.
A playful day! Accept all invitations to party and enjoy yourself with fun, social diversions. Romance, sports events and fun activities with kids will particularly appeal. It’s also a good day to study the arts or sports and to hone your technique through practice. A winning day in all respects!
Stock the fridge because you’ll enjoy entertaining at home today. However, this is also an excellent day to explore redecorating ideas or real estate possibilities (including real estate speculation, residential moves or renting.) It’s a fun, productive day.
You’re embracing positive thinking today, which is why you are so upbeat and optimistic! Enjoy talking to neighbors and relatives. You will also enjoy studying and teaching. This is a good day to make future plans.
When it comes to finances and shopping, you’re in the driver’s seat. In fact, you can actually attract money to you! You want to buy beautiful things for yourself and loved ones. Fortunately, your mind is practical and incisive, so you won’t miss a thing.
Actress Mandy Moore (1984) shares your birthday. You are honest, realistic and generous. You’re active and always on the go. As your new personal year begins, you are entering a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. Be open to letting go of old habits and habitual patterns in your life. Consider new ways of doing things because this year will bring you fresh opportunities.
Horoscope for Saturday, April 10, 2021Georgia Nicolson April 10, 2021 at 5:01 am Read More »
The fire broke out a home in the 9400 block of South Halsted Street.
One person died and another was seriously wounded in a fire Friday night in Brainerd on the South Side.
The fire broke out after 11 p.m. in the 9400 block of South Halsted Street, according to Chicago fire officials.
Still and Box on Halsted will be a fatal fire. One occupant non ambulatory was trapped inside. Flames too intense to make rescue. Adult male. pic.twitter.com/ACS4OUf7U9
— Chicago Fire Media (@CFDMedia) April 10, 2021
A woman was transported to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition, fire officials said.
Crews searched for a man trapped inside the home but flames were too intense to make a rescue, fire officials said.
1 killed, 1 seriously hurt in Brainerd fireSun-Times Wireon April 10, 2021 at 5:20 am Read More »
Barrington’s Peter Anderson may be the only quarterback in the area with his GPA and SAT score in his Twitter bio.
Barrington’s Peter Anderson may be the only quarterback in the area with his GPA and SAT score in his Twitter bio.
Anderson’s brains and football IQ were on full display in the No. 19 Broncos’ 35-21 win against MSL West rival Fremd on Friday.
The first-year starter is developing into a significant force. He was 11-for-15 for 246 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception and he had two short-yardage touchdown runs. Anderson connected with five different receivers, including big plays of 81 yards and 51 yards to senior Joey Gurskis.
“There is a young man who has put in everything he has for this moment right here,” Barrington coach Joe Sanchez said. “I am just so grateful for this entire senior group, for this team to have this opportunity. [Anderson] studies, he preps, he does all the things that you want. Augustana is getting a gem.”
Fremd (2-2) led 7-0 at halftime. Senior Cade Cheripka’s nine-yard run was the only score in the first two quarters.
“We had a lot of plays in the first half where we were just an inch off success and we went out in the second half and changed that and figured it out,” Anderson said.
The Vikings took a 21-14 lead on Taytum Carmichael’s one-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter. But the play was costly for Fremd. Quarterback Ryan Saxe injured his left leg and didn’t return. The Vikings never managed any kind of passing attack after he left the game.
Saxe was 11-for-17 for 221 yards and scored on a one-yard run in the third quarter.
Fremd takes a 14-7 lead on Barrington. QB Ryan Saxe ran it in from the 1. He also completed a pair of nice long passes on the drive, including this one to Cade Cheripka. pic.twitter.com/eKEGb9sFsw
— Michael O’Brien (@michaelsobrien) April 10, 2021
Barrington did a solid job limiting Fremd’s rushing attack throughout. The Vikings managed just two runs of more than nine yards and finished with just 66 yards on the ground.
“That’s just playing team defense with the guys executing their job and making sure that they gapped out the way they are supposed to,” Sanchez said. “We pride ourselves on swarming to the ball, 11 guys getting there and finishing plays.”
Barrington running back Bryan Smith tied the game with a 61-yard touchdown run with 10:35 and then sealed the win with a 42-yard touchdown run in the final minute.
“That was amazing to see him free up and the field open and know he was going to the end zone,” Anderson said. “It felt great for everyone.”
Smith had 10 carries for 124 yards and two touchdowns. Gurskis caught six passes for 169 yards and a touchdown and Tom Sweeney had two receptions for 49 yards.
“This win means a lot to us,” Smith said. “We had lost to them two years in a row and offensively we didn’t score both years. So to come out and put up 35 points was an amazing game for our team.”
The win clinches the MSL West for Barrington. The Broncos will face the MSL East winner in the conference championship game Week 6.
“We’d like to win one more and then have these guys finish it out,” Sanchez said. “I’m just proud of the kids.”
All the scores from the ranked teams.
Saturday vs. No. 21 Hillcrest
Won 34-10 at Lockport
Lost 30-7 vs. Wheaton Warrenville South
Won 49-14 at Marian Catholic
Won 35-12 at De La Salle
Saturday at No. 11 Nazareth
No game scheduled
Won 41-7 at No. 20 DeKalb
Won 43-0 vs. Lake Zurich
Won 17-7 at Glenbrook South
Saturday vs. No. 5 Marist
Won 63-0 at Proviso West
Won 49-14 at Carmel
Won 52-44 at St. Laurence
Lost 14-7 at Oswego East
Lost 14-12 at St. Charles North
Won 40-6 at Dundee-Crown
Won 35-21 vs. Fremd
Saturday vs. Prairie Ridge
Lost 41-7 vs. No. 8 Naperville Central
Saturday at No. 1 Loyola
Saturday vs. Waubonsie Valley
No game scheduled
Friday at Zion-Benton
Saturday vs. Lincoln Park
How the Super 25 fared in Week 4Michael O’Brienon April 10, 2021 at 4:46 am Read More »
Here’s Friday’s news on how COVID-19 is impacting Chicago and Illinois. Follow here for live updates.
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Illinois public health officials on Friday reported a second straight record-setting day for COVID-19 vaccinations — but the state also hit a worrying milestone by logging more than 4,000 new cases of the disease for the first time in 10 weeks as the latest coronavirus surge builds momentum.
With 164,462 doses administered Thursday, Illinois is vaccinating more people than ever, at an average clip of 118,336 shots per day over the last week, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
That still hasn’t been enough to tamp down a sharp rise in infections over the past month, as most key metrics have almost doubled.
With another 4,004 residents testing positive for the virus — the most in a day since Jan. 29 — about 3,122 Illinoisans have contracted COVID-19 each day over the past week. That rate is up 91% compared to the first week of March, when the state was reporting an average of 1,663 daily cases.
Read the full story by Mitchell Armentrout here.
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb on Friday vetoed a bill that would have given legislators more authority to intervene during emergencies declared by the governor.
Holcomb issued the veto on the proposal that lawmakers approved over his objections, and which he and some legal experts have said they don’t believe is allowed under the state constitution.
Holcomb’s fellow Republicans pushed the bill after months of criticism from some conservatives over COVID-19 restrictions that he imposed by executive order during the statewide public health emergency over the past year.
“I firmly believe a central part of this bill is unconstitutional,” Holcomb wrote in his veto letter. “The legislation impermissibly attempts to give the General Assembly the ability to call itself into a special session, thereby usurping a power given exclusively to the governor.”
The death of a 117-year-old program, one that captured championships and produced Olympians, ended with a gasp. And then a vote.
The fact the former did not alter the outcome of the latter offered a stark glimpse into the steadily eroding support for men’s gymnastics at the NCAA level, one that will eventually have a ripple effect up and down the food chain for a sport struggling for relevance inside the U.S. Olympic movement.
That gasp. John Roethlisberger could hear it during a University of Minnesota Board of Regents meeting last fall. At one point someone asked how much money the school’s athletic department would save by approving the proposal to cut men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s indoor track and field, a move athletic director Mark Coyle called necessary to help offset a $45 million to $65 million deficit due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The answer? $1.6 million. Or just more than 1% of the athletic department’s $123 million budget.
WASHINGTON — Washington will rush federal resources to support vaccinations, testing and therapeutics, but not vaccines, to Michigan in an effort to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 transmission rate, the White House said Friday.
The announcement came as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer strongly recommended, but did not order, a two-week pause on face-to-face high school instruction, indoor restaurant dining and youth sports. She cited more contagious coronavirus variants and pandemic fatigue as factors in the surge, which has led some hospitals to postpone non-emergency procedures.
Statewide hospitalizations have quadrupled in a month and are nearing peak levels from last spring and fall.
“Policy alone won’t change the tide. We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility,” she said Friday, while not ruling out future restrictions. Michigan’s seven-day case rate was 492 per 100,000 people, well above second-worst New Jersey, with 328 per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
WARSAW, Poland — Hospitals in Turkey and Poland are filling up. Pakistan is restricting domestic travel. The U.S. government will send more help to the state with the country’s worst infection increase.
The worldwide surge in coronavirus cases and deaths includes even Thailand, which has weathered the pandemic far better than many nations but now struggles to contain COVID-19.
The only exceptions to the deteriorating situation are countries that have advanced vaccination programs, mostly notably Israel and Britain. The U.S., which is a vaccination leader globally, is also seeing a small uptick in new cases, and the White House announced Friday that it would send federal assistance to Michigan to control the state’s worst-in-the-nation transmission rate.
The World Health Organization said infection rates are climbing in every global region, driven by new virus variants and too many countries coming out of lockdown too soon.
Vendors on the Chicago Riverwalk began a phased-in reopening Friday that will have all vendors open by the end of May.
Island Party Hut, Beat Kitchen on the River and City Winery opened Friday. A new vendor addition this year is Pier 31, which plans to open in May.
“The Riverwalk is not only an important part of our city’s economic engine, but it also adds to the liveliness of our iconic summers,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a news release.
“This reopening serves as yet another indicator of our city’s resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we look forward to making this Chicago staple available to residents and visitors this spring and summer.”
Read the full story by Zinya Salfiti here.
With 500 permits issued every year, it’s safe to say that Chicago loves a parade.
On Thursday, the City Council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs and Special Events proved that love by providing a bit of post-pandemic protection.
At Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s behest, aldermen endorsed an ordinance that preserves permit priority for “traditional parades” scheduled at around the same time along the same route “in connection with a specific holiday or consistent theme for at least the prior five years.”
That priority status would remain even though those “traditional parades” were canceled last year because of the coronavirus — and even though none have been held so far this year, either.
Deputy Transportation Commissioner Mike Simon said the goal of the mayor’s ordinance is to prevent the temporary hiatus from opening the door to post-pandemic feuds between parade organizers vying for permits on the same day.
Here’s the full story from Fran Spielman.
The coronavirus pandemic sparked a mental health crisis. For Asians and Asian Americans also facing a rise in hate incidents across the country, it’s been “trauma upon trauma,” says Anne Saw, a Chicago psychologist.
“A lot of our communities are experiencing so many pandemic stressors that are then compounded by a lot of anti-Asian discrimination that we’re also experiencing,” says Saw, who teaches at DePaul University and directs the Chicago Asian American Psychology Lab.
“It’s tough to, like, get your head above water and get some room to breathe when every day we’re confronted with new traumas,” she says.
We talked to seven Chicagoans about how anti-Asian violence coupled with the pandemic have affected their mental health and their everyday lives. Among them was Kaylee Cong, 32, of Uptown, who manages a nail spa.
On March 20, four days after the Atlanta shootings, Cong says, her 60-year-old Vietnamese father was punched in the head as he walked alone that night near Broadway and West Ainslee Street. He turned to run, saw a white man holding a baseball bat watching him and called 911.
“We’re really scared,” says Cong, who’d been talking with her father about the Georgia shootings the day before he was attacked. “What if the person come back and do revenge? My entire life living here, it was so peaceful. There was no violence like this.”
She says her father hasn’t wanted to leave the house since that happened.
Older Asian Americans “just want to keep quiet and don’t want to make waves,” Cong says. “I have really different mentality. We deserve to, you know, feel safe. And we shouldn’t be afraid to stand up for ourselves.”
Read the stories of six more Chicagoans we spoke to here.
A final high school reopening agreement remains elusive between Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union just days before high school teachers are due to return to classrooms — and the union president said Thursday the next few days of negotiations will determine whether workers show up on Monday.
Though the range of issues is smaller and disagreement over those items is not as severe as the hostile K-8 negotiations in February, there are still a few unresolved concerns the union is expressing as COVID-19 infections once again rise in the city.
CPS officials have directed 5,350 high school teachers to return to buildings Monday with or without a CTU agreement, and about 26,000 students in grades 9-12 are expected back the following week.
Whether or not that timeline sticks is dependent on “how outrageous the board’s positions are as we go ahead,” CTU President Jesse Sharkey told a few hundred members at a virtual meeting Thursday that was closed to the public.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘Sharkey, I want a really definitive answer, am I going in on Monday?’” he said. “And my really definitive answer is, it depends on where we’re at.”
Read Nader Issa’s full story here.
University of Chicago announced a stay-at-home period for students Wednesday evening following the largest COVID-19 outbreak at the university since the start of the academic year.
After more than 50 cases of the coronavirus were detected among undergraduates in recent days, the university announced that students living on-campus must observe a week-long stay-at-home period immediately.
“We expect this number to increase,” university officials said in an email sent to members of the university community Thursday.
All undergraduate classes will be fully remote for at least a week starting Thursday and students can only leave their residence halls for food, medical appointments and short walks for exercise.
Read the full story from Zinya Salfiti here.
Time stood still.
Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Reasons” hung on a summer breeze as we bellowed the words from our souls and dreamed of life, love and making sweet memories. Having emerged from Jim Crow — still fresh from the Great Migration and still reeling from Dr. King’s assassination but standing in the dawning light of new possibilities, even amid our pain and poverty — we sang.
And we danced. And romanced. Black love. Black family. Back in a time before insanity and so much profanity. So 70s …
Back then, the libretto of the days of our lives was sung in Philip Bailey’s falsetto, which rose higher and sweeter than a morning bird, fluttering above a rippling blue lake against a golden sunrise. The music made us live, love, laugh, cry.
Even when times were bad, songs seasoned our days and nights, like Grandmother’s cornbread and collard greens. They composed the soundtrack of our times, chronicled life and death, struggle and breath, and the yearning souls of Black folk. Nothing compared to the songs that Earth, Wind & Fire and the Isley Brothers wrote.
And time stood still.
I can still see my uncle’s candy apple red Delta 88. See us dance and skate. Smell my Aunt Scopie’s garlic fried chicken. See adults and children alike shimmy and shake.
Back then, songs spoke to our spirits in smooth and funk-filled grooves and harmonies, in honey-laden melodies with timeless lyrics that worked like good medicine to soothe our sometimes-wearied souls as they spilled from AM radios.
Songs made us whole. They flowed through West and South Side blocks, like rivers of milk and honey, amid the cool white spray of fire hydrants on blazing summer days. Made us feel rich, even when we had no money.
For the sun shone as brightly on the Cold Coast as it did on the Gold Coast. And the scent of barbecue at a block club party in the hood — white smoke billowing from grills saturated with ribs and tips and hotdogs, burgers and corn on the cob–made ghetto life all good.
And time stood still …
We sang: “Hearts of fire creates loves desire, Take you high and higher to the world you belong…”
We sang: “Through devotion, Blessed are the children, Praise the teacher, That brings true love to many…”
And time stood still…
No drive-bys. No crack. No carjacking. No COVID-19.
And yet, they were no-less imperfect times filled with red tape and white lies. But the music helped us just get by.
We sang: “Drifting on a memory, Ain’t no place I’d rather be, Than with you, loving you…” The Isley Brothers’ silky soulful sounds melted away our troubles–wet our palates like the White Port and Kool-Aid mix the alley winos called shake-n-bake. And Ernie Isley’s guitar serenades transported our hearts and imaginations all the way to heaven.
We sang, “I keep hearin’ footsteps, baby, In the dark, in the dark…”
We sang, “Smiles in the makin’, You gotta fight the powers that be…”
We sang, “Sometimes you can’t be with the one you love, honey, love the one you’re with.”
At their best, they were among the songs that uplifted us. That time-stamped upon our hearts and souls memories of first loves, first times, and seasons now passed. Of family no longer here. Of bid whist and ice-cold beer, of moonlit nights without trepidation or fear. Songs that filled our ghetto atmosphere with serenity and serendipity that chased away our troubled days like Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September.”
It was a Verzuz battle last Sunday between Earth, Wind & Fire and the Isley Brothers that helped me to remember. And time stood still.
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Even when times were bad, songs seasoned our days and nightson April 9, 2021 at 10:57 pm Read More »
A Wall Street rating agency that alone gave Chicago a junk bond rating on Friday branded as “credit negative” a bill Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed over Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s objections boosting pensions for thousands of Chicago firefighters.
“The legislation is credit negative for the city of Chicago,” said the advisory from Moody’s Investors Service, “because it will cause the city’s reported unfunded pension liabilities, and thus its annual contribution requirements, to rise.”
With pension contributions consuming 17% of the city’s operating revenue and total liabilities pegged at $46.6 billion in 2019, pensions are the “largest credit challenge facing Chicago,” Moody’s said.
Pritzker signed the bill on Monday, arguing the new law “creates a system that gives all firefighters certainty and fair treatment.” But Lightfoot, who had urged the fellow Democrat not to sign it, blasted it as a “fiscally irresponsible” law typical of Springfield’s “back room deals.”
Moody’s on Friday gave Lightfoot more ammunition.
The Firefighters Annuity and Benefit Fund has “asset/benefit coverage of just three years,” Moody’s wrote. That’s a “point-in-time estimate of the numbers of years of benefit payments pension assets can cover, assuming no further contributions or investment income and no further growth in benefits.”
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“The city must continue to increase its contributions substantially to prevent the insolvency of its deeply underfunded retirement systems and eventually accumulate a more substantial base of pension assets,” Moody’s wrote.
But the rating agency also wrote, “While significant, the roughly $800 million liability increase stemming from House Bill 2451 that the city has forecast is not outsized relative to the scale of the city’s already extremely high liabilities.”
The bill, introduced by state Sen. Robert Martwick, D-Chicago, a Lightfoot political nemesis, passed in the waning hours of the lame duck session.
It removes the “birth date restriction” that prohibits roughly 2,200 active and retired firefighters born after Jan. 1, 1966, from receiving a 3% annual cost of living increase. Instead, they get half that amount, 1.5% and it is not compounded.
Martwick has argued the “birth date restriction” already has been moved five times as a way of masking the true cost to the pension fund.
Lightfoot strongly disagreed. She has argued the bill amounts to ill-timed and unaffordable pension sweetener that would saddle Chicago taxpayers with up $823 million in added costs by 2055 and trigger “another property tax hike for Chicagoans, which would regrettably add to the overwhelming economic duress that so many or our neighbors are facing.”
The mayor’s $12.8 billion budget already includes a $94 million property tax increase, followed by annual increases tied to the Consumer Price Index.
When he signed the bill on Monday, Pritzker argued that “hardworking men and women who have earned their pension shouldn’t pay the price for local or state budget challenges.”
“To make sure that the city can meet its obligations, my administration is working to sell the James R. Thompson Center, which will return to the city’s property tax rolls and is projected to generate $45 million annually for the city and its sister agencies,” the governor wrote in a statement.
Chicago rapper D2x has poured all 23 years of his life so far into his debut album, The Color Blue. Across its 13 tracks, he delivers lines about his childhood in the south suburbs, his time playing basketball as a student at Western Illinois University, his struggles with depression, his faith in God, his recent marriage—and his desire to make a classic album that sums it all up.…Read More
It took him 40 years, but he never gave up hope. A fellow Vietnam veteran says: ‘He let the families know their sons did not die alone and they’d never be forgotten.’
Jim Zwit never forgot the hot, sticky smell of Vietnam. And he never forgot the eight Army buddies he lost there in an ambush in 1971.
He made it his life’s mission to track down each of their families, spread across the United States. And that was in an age before finding people was made easier by the likes of Google, email and social media.
It took him 40 years, but he finally found the last of them.
“He let the families know their sons did not die alone and they’d never be forgotten,” said Pat Condran, a fellow vet who plans to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., to mark the 50th anniversary of the April 15, 1971, firefight that forever changed the lives of those who survived.
Mr. Zwit, 70, a former Chicago cop who later ran his own investigations agency, died last month at his home in La Grange Park of bladder cancer, though his doctors think his wartime exposure to the chemical Agent Orange contributed to his health problems, according to his wife Grace.
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Young Jim grew up on the Southwest Side and went to St. Bede the Venerable grade school and Bogan High School.
He was a student at what was then called the University of Illinois at Chicago Circle when he decided to enlist in the Army.
He served in the 501st Battalion of the 2nd Brigade, 101st Airborne Division. In Vietnam, whenever he met another kid from Chicago, he had one question: “Cubs or Sox?”
He was all Sox all the way.
In an interview for Honor Flight Chicago, Mr. Zwit said he and fellow GI Robert C. Hein bonded over their love of motorcycles. They dreamed of riding the Pacific Coast Highway when they returned home.
“He made a pact with me, don’t ask me why,” Mr. Zwit said, that “ ‘If something happens to one of us,’ he goes, ‘the other guy has to go back and see the family to explain what happened.’ ’’
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In 1971, Mr. Zwit and 77 other members of D Company were assigned to retrieve a soldier’s body from the A Shau Valley.
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“Our motto is: You never leave a man behind,” he said in another interview, with the Veterans History Project.
Mr. Zwit said he and his comrades didn’t realize they were surrounded by 1,500 North Vietnamese regular Army troops who shadowed them for two days without their knowledge.
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“They watched us land. They followed us for two days — and our command knew this,” Mr. Zwit told the Veterans History Project.
On April 15, 1971, “All hell broke loose,” he said in the Honor Flight Chicago interview.
Eight men were killed and 13 wounded in an ambush — more than a quarter of his company.
Mr. Zwit was badly injured by shrapnel.
But Hein dragged his 20-year-old friend to safety, propped him against a tree and kept fetching water for him.
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“He’d crawl back every so often, canteen of water, canteen of water, canteen of water,” Mr. Zwit said. But then: “There was a point where he didn’t come back.”
Hein had taken a direct hit. He died instantly.
Mr. Zwit always wondered whether his friend died because he was trying to get him a drink.
“Something I have to live with,” he said later. “I think about it to this day.”
He was choppered to safety in a rescue so perilous that the helicopter had to zoom off with Mr. Zwit clipped to a cable, swinging through the foliage.
“I was kissing every tree that was in front of me,” he told the Veterans History Project.
Mr. Zwit suffered massive injuries. Much later, he found medical records that spelled out just how badly he was hurt. They said: “Doctors do not believe he will live.”
He underwent 12 hours of surgery and was given 25 units of blood. He lost 70% of his liver, part of his stomach, his gallbladder, a kidney and four ribs. It took him 20 months to recover.
“He was beat up pretty good,” his wife said.
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Mr. Zwit told an interviewer, “I knew when I got better, I knew where I was gonna go.”
And so he set out to find Hein’s mother. That would take him 17 years.
Mr. Zwit’s backpack and address book had been destroyed the night of the attack. Hein had told him he was from Sacramento, so he called the Sacramento Bee, but the newspaper couldn’t find a death notice for him.
In the late 1970s, when a friend visited Sacramento, Mr. Zwit said he told him, “Go to a phone booth, and rip out all the pages with ‘Hein.’
“I called every one. Nothing.”
Then, in 1988, he spotted a story in a military magazine about a new Vietnam veterans’ memorial in Sacramento and wrote a letter to Sacramento newscaster Stan Atkinson, who was helping with the tribute. Atkinson alerted Mike Kelley, a 101st Airborne vet who was on the memorial committee. Kelley worked in the assessor’s office but had no luck finding Hein’s family through records there.
By coincidence, though, Kelley heard another volunteer, Doug Durham, say that Condran — Durham’s brother-in-law — was coming there from his home in Fairbanks, Alaska, to march in the parade for his fellow Company D member — Bob Hein.
It turned out that Hein was from Sacramento County, not the city. And his relatives were in a town Mr. Zwit hadn’t checked — Rio Linda, California.
It was “a series of miracles,’’ Mr. Zwit told WTTW-Channel 11.
Hein had made the same pact with Condran about getting in touch with one another’s relatives if either of them was killed.
Condran, who’d already met the Heins, gave Mr. Zwit the phone number for his mother, Catherine Hein-Markley.
“It was the hardest call of my life. I called her the next day,” Mr. Zwit said in the Honor Flight Chicago interview. Soon, “She was like another mom to me.”
He went to Sacramento and met Hein’s mother. And he and Condran both marched in her son’s place in the parade to dedicate the California Vietnam Memorial.
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Hearing about how her son had helped Mr. Zwit that night, Hein’s mother told a reporter, “I’m real proud of my son, and it is as if just a part of Bob has come back now through Jim.”
“Meeting the first mother, the first parent of one of those eight guys that died that night, it was unbelievable,” Mr. Zwit told WTTW. “It was the most satisfying thing. . . From that day on, I said, you know, I’m going to keep trying to find the other seven families.”
Hein’s sister Toni Doucet said the meeting helped heal his relatives and that, like Condran before him, “Jim became part of the family.”
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He and Condran made Hein come alive to the nieces and nephews who never met him. They explained the details in the Instamatic photos that soldiers took of each other when things were quiet.
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Mr. Zwit stayed in touch with Hein’s mother. “She got 13 years with him” before she died, Doucet said. “Phone calls, emails, cards, letters.”
After returning home from Vietnam and joining the Chicago Police Department, where he worked for about a dozen years, Mr. Zwit started an investigative and process-serving agency.
He used his detective skills and the Internet to continue his research, locating relatives of six more of his buddies killed in Vietnam. But he was stymied finding the family of William J. Ward, who was from Greene County, North Carolina.
That is until he went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington on April 15, 2011 — the 40th anniversary of the firefight. He noticed a woman kneel to study the bottom of panel 4W, where his friends’ names were.
“He asked me, ‘Ma’am, can I ask you who you came to see?’ ” Lois Daniels said. “And I said, ‘William Ward.’ He got all choked up, and he said, ‘William Ward — I’ve been looking for you all these years.’ We just cried together.”
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Daniels is married to Emanuel Daniels, a cousin of Ward.
“I put my arm around her, and I said, ‘I’ve been looking for your family for 40 years,”’ Mr. Zwit recalled in a speech at a 2018 veterans’ memorial ceremony in Anthem, Arizona.
She didn’t know it was the anniversary of the firefight. An educator from Hampton, Virginia, Daniels had decided to visit the memorial with her grandchildren while on spring break.
“I just call it a true miracle,” she said.
Mr. Zwit connected by phone with Ward’s family and got photos from Vietnam and news clippings to Ward’s mother Mary Lena Ward.
He regularly spoke at schools about his military service.
Mr. Zwit was buried this month at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery. In addition to his wife Grace, survivors include his daughter Jennifer Hennessy, sons Jeffrey, Vincent and Christian and four grandchildren.
“He lived every day to the fullest,” his wife said, “because he was so grateful he survived Vietnam.”
