Vet displays historical collection at Gurnee bank

GURNEE -- When it comes to military and historical memorabilia, the collection of retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Nathaniel Hamilton can be measured in many ways, and one would be how long it takes to put it on public display: seven hours.

That's the time put in by volunteers from Warren Township High School's Future Business Leaders of America in setting up the photos, artwork, newspapers, scale models and presidential commendations Hamilton shared with First Midwest Bank for Veterans Day 2009.

"We're one of the few banks open on Veterans Day, so we thought we'd do it with a bang," said Nancy Tunberg, vice president and manager of the Hunt Club Road branch. "And one of our clients has a son who was just deployed (to Afghanistan) with the 82nd Airborne, so we wanted to collect items to send them."

Hamilton, known around Lake County for the Angel Drill Team he founded in 1967, was joined Wednesday by several helpers in collecting food and personal-care items, including current team members Makiyah Hardeman, Savanna Lutchman, Bibiana Vela and alumnus Annalyn Fannin of Waukegan.

The Vietnam veteran also took time to walk visitors through memorabilia that stretched from the lobby to the bank itself and down several adjoining hallways -- items that detail both U.S. history and his own lifetime of service.

"A lot of people read history books. I can read the original newspapers," he said with a smile, holding up a copy of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin from Dec. 7, 1941, with the headline "War! Oahu Bombed by Japanese Planes." His collection also includes entries from the now-defunct Chicago Daily News and the old Chicago Sun.

Hamilton also owns original copies of Life magazine, some of them protected with leather binding, that he estimated might fetch $350,000 all told on the collector's market. But many of his treasures are priceless, such as the photos he took of villages and the countryside in Vietnam during his service there from 1969 to 1971.

Other personal mementos include the Armed Forces Code of Conduct that he signed in September 1966, and a letter he received from the commander of the 7th Fleet for his service as a leading signalman in 1970. A three-ring binder holds commendations from presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush.

At one point, Hamilton leaned over a color photo of a Navy drill team stepping across Ross Field at Naval Station Great Lakes sometime during the 1960s. "That's my drill team," he said, pointing to a young man near the back. "That's me, right there."

Though the items seen on Wednesday could rival a small museum, Hamilton estimated that they only represented about half of what he keeps at home. "I spent about 30 years collecting it," he explained, "and it comes from all over the world."