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A centennial salute to the American Legion

The Herald - 3/11/2019

March 11-- Mar. 11--MERCER COUNTY -- The image of military veterans spending their time sitting around telling war stories at American Legion halls isn't true, said Tom Burke, an Army veteran.

Burke is a former commander of Sharon American Legion Post 299 and currently serves as its historian.

"In my 28 years as a Legion member, I have never heard one war story here," he said. "Some people don't want to remember. And others are just private people."

Members of American Legion posts may not be a boastful bunch individually, but the organization is giving itself a well-earned salute as it marks its 100th anniversary.

The Legion has two birthday dates. On March 13, 1919, the first American Legion caucus was convened in Paris just four months after World War I ended. On Sept. 16 of that year, Congress chartered and incorporated the Legion as a federally recognized organization.

American Legion posts swiftly began cropping up nationwide. Sharon'sAmerican Legion Post 299 is part of that first group. It's hitting the century mark this month.

The group bills itself as the nation's largest wartime veterans service organization. While those active in the U.S. military are eligible to be regular Legion members, the overwhelming bulk were retired or honorably discharged out of the service.

Decisions on where to house a Legion is up to each individual post. Sharpsville Legion Post 162 is in a former Italian club on Main Street. The post's hall is on the ground floor and its bar is housed in the basement.

"This place is built like a fort," Bill Banch, commander of the Sharpsville Legion said of its building. "You can be sitting at the bar and would never know that there's a really bad storm going on outside."

Like many Legion's the hub of activity for the Sharpsville post's members is at its bar. The bar also is the Sharpsville Legion's money maker.

"I know if we didn't have a bar here we'd be out of business," said Banch, a U.S. Army veteran from the Vietnam War era.

There are various types of Legion members, with the best known being regular members who served in the U.S. military. Other memberships include the Auxiliary, who are the female descendants of veterans, and Sons, who are male descendants of veterans and social members.

Regular membership was initially based on those serving in a time of war or recognized military action: World War I and II, Korean War, Vietnam War and the U.S. invasions of Lebanon, Grenada and Panama, the first Gulf War in 1990-91, and the Global War on Terrorism from 2001 to the present.

In the time period from after the Korean War to the invasion of Panama that ended Jan. 31, 1990, it totals more than 18 years where someone could have been in the service but ineligible for a regular Legion membership.

"We couldn't get any new regular members in those times," Banch said. "That hurt a lot of us."

The Legion's rules for the newest batch of regular members is more inclusive as it accepts those military veterans who served during the Gulf War from Aug. 2, 1990, to the present.

Each Legion post determines its how it will be involved in activities.

The Sharon American Legion regularly donates to local charities. The organization's biggest fundraiser is its weekly bingo games.

Its charitable funds benefit local organizations including Buhl Park, Community Food Warehouse of Mercer County, the Community Library of the Shenango Valley and schools, said Post Commander Bob Calvin.

"And we have a lot of community involvement with or golf league, euchre league and bus trips," Calvin said.

George "Skip" Houk, a Vietnam War veteran, is among the Wheatland Legion Hall's regulars.

Nearly 50 years after his combat tour, Houk still serves. He helps arrange honor guards, mainly for veterans' burial services, with volunteers from the Wheatland Legion and members of the Farrell and West Middlesex Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"So far this year we've had 28 honor guards," he said. "Anyone who was in the service, who didn't necessarily have to be in a war, is entitled to an honor guard for their funeral."

Paulette Davis said she and her husband have become close friends with other members of the Wheatland Legion. The couple are social members who often relax at the post's bar.

"This is our family," she said.

PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION of the AMERICAN LEGION

For God and country we associate ourselves together for the following purposes:

To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America; To maintain law and order;

To foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism; To preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the Great Wars; To inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation; To combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; To make right the master of might; To promote peace and goodwill on earth; To safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy; To consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.

___

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