Born in Chicago, Wilkos grew up in what is now the Roscoe Village neighborhood in North Center, Chicago, one of four children Jeanette (née Pelikan), a beauty school instructor, and Stanley Wilkos, a former police officer who was in the Korean War as an army paratrooper. He graduated from Lane Technical High School in 1982.\n', '

In October 1982, Wilkos joined the United States Marine Corps, serving in South Korea, Japan, Illinois, Virginia, and South Carolina before being discharged in March 1989.\n', '

Wilkos joined the Chicago Police Department in 1990, where he was stationed in the Logan Square, Chicago neighborhood.\n', '

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