National Train Day 2024 is on Friday, May 10, 2024: National Train Day-Chicago Union Station?

Friday, May 10, 2024 is National Train Day 2024.

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This is from: I believe that trains will be running on their normal schedule for that day--the exhibits are separate from the operating trains.

Come on down to the station and join the celebration in Chicago! Don't miss your chance to see model trains, train equipment displays and much more:

* The Blues Journey and Connection to the Railroad Exhibit*

* Train Equipment Displays*

* Model Train Displays*

* AmtraKids Depot

* Go-Green Express: Eco Exhibit*

* National Park Service Trails & Rails Exhibit*

* Snapshot Station

* Trains Move our Economy Exhibit*

* Amtrak: Dining the Rail Way* exhibit and culinary demonstrations, featuring Chef Gerard Bertholon

* Amtrak Brand Display - Enjoy the journey®*

* Live performances by the sons of blues legend Muddy Waters and Mississippi-based blues musician, Bobby Rush, and the South Shore Drill Team

*Stop by this exhibit and get your National Train Day "Passport" stamped! Passports will be provided at Union Station on May 8. Be sure to pick one up!

National Train Day in Chicago features The Blues Journey and Connection to the Railroad Exhibit.

Train travel played an important role in the emergence of blues as a major American art form and the development and migration of the sound from the Mississippi Delta north. On National Train Day at Chicago's Union Station, Big Bill and Larry "Mud" Morganfield, the sons of celebrated blues musician Muddy Waters, will be joined by legendary Mississippi Delta blues player Bobby Rush to perform train-themed blues songs. This will be the last stop in a five-state tour aboard Amtrak, originating in Muddy Water's birthplace in Mississippi. The Chicago Blues Museum will also display a special blues exhibit at the station with a brief historical presentation by the museum's curator, Gregg Parker.

National Guard?

National Guard trains generally one weekend a month, and two weeks a year. Your first step is to go to a Nat. Guard Recruiter and explore your options. Ask him/her to put you into contact with various units so that you can perhaps make a visit to them so you can talk to people from those units and see if what they do is in your interest. Then you will have to decide on an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty). This is Military Police, Quartermaster, etc. Then you will got to MEPS and get your physical done and all of your paperwork finalized and then within one year, you will go to basic training (you usually get to pick the date you go). Basic training is about 10 weeks and your AIT (Advanced Individual Training will vary depending on the job you are being trained for). You can do what is called "Split Option" where you go to basic, come home and go to school or whatever and then go to your AIT later withing 1 year of completing basic.

After Basic Training and AIT you report to your unit.Your weekend is called "drill" where you show up Saturday and do Physical Training for about an hour and then general mission training the rest of the day until 4 or 5. Sunday is usually the same. Your 2 weeks is called AT (Annual Training) where you head out to an Army post or someplace and conduct intensive readiness training. You have to qualify on your weapon once a year (maybe more depending on your command), and you have to pass a Physical Training (PT) Test twice a year. Look up "Army APFT Satndards" in yahoo and you should find a chart to tell you what you need to do.

The Benefits: You will more than likely get a bonus of up to $20,000. You get 100% tuition Assistance for in-state schools and if you already have a scholarship, they will match it and cut you a check that goes into your pocket. Also, you are eligible for the GI Bill and Kicker which gives you up to $509.00 a month while you attend school in addition to tuition assistance. You get paid for basic training (between 2,000 and 3,000 depending on your rank). You also get paid for drills and AT. You get $400,000 life insurance for $29/month if you want it and it covers you wheather you are on or off duty.

The best benefit is knowing that you are serving your community, State, and Country and that you are in a position that less that 1% of all Americans are willing to commit to. It is the American Soldier NOT the Constitution who gives the American People their freedom. As a National Guard Soldier, you are a guardian of freedom and the American Way of Life. You are a servant to the people of this great Nation and as such YOU have an active role in securing the blessings of liberty for not only your family, your children and their children, but to the children of strangers who are not willing or physically able to sacrafice what you are willing to give.