US soldiers join Polish pilgrimage The Associated Press Published: August 5, 2008 WARSAW, Poland: Hundreds of soldiers in camouflage set off Tuesday on a 10-day march to Poland's holiest Roman Catholic shrine — among them five Americans hoping to deepen ties with an ally. Five members of the Illinois National Guard traveled to Poland to make the 180-mile (290-kilometer) trek on foot — alongside Poles, Germans and other Europeans — from Warsaw to Czestochowa, site of the revered Black Madonna icon. Though the 300-year-old pilgrimage has deep religious and patriotic resonance in mainly Catholic Poland, the main purpose of the...