May 22, 2026 6:30p
(WGTD)---For dozens of Gateway students, graduates and staff, and for others associated with the Pritzker War Museum and Library in Somers, this Memorial Day will be remembered as one in which plans were being gelled for the installation of an important exhibit.
“Above and Beyond” is a powerful overhead display of replicas of dog tags for each of the over 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam.
The exhibit was last on display at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. Circumstances dictated that it be moved.
Without a solid plan in place, the President of the Pritzker museum, Scott English, offered to host it in Somers.
Through a chance meeting with Gateway Interim President Morgan Phillips, English connected with Gateway Fab Lab Coordinator John Zehren. He rounded up current and past students with engineering, architectural and manufacturing experience to put in motion a plan to design and install a 10 ft. by 41 ft. suspended platform with the affixed dog tags.
"Every one of those tags represents a life and that life was significant to people," Zehren said on the Saturday morning Fab Lab show on WGTD. "It's an honor to be part of it."
The dog tags will be arranged in chronological order of the service member’s death. The exhibit will include an index to help visitors locate specific dog tags.
The new exhibit will be installed next month.
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