Members of the newly reactivated Standish American Legion, Post 128 gathered last week to install its six new officers.
Carl Henrikson, Mike Stevens, Stanford Davis, Raymond Reynolds, Mike Lynch and Albert Springer were officially sworn in at the Jan. 25 meeting.
“I am very pleased to see a post in Standish,” said Robert Owens, American Legion department service officer and national executive committee member Robert Owens.
Owens was the guest speaker for Thursday night’s ceremony, held at the Steep Falls Fire Barn on Manchester Road.
Thanks to a recent campaign by local military retirees in Standish, Post 128 has brought in nearly 50 members, and now the organization is officially recognized as a state post.
“We have spent three months getting this post ready,” said Robert Morrill, legion state membership director. “It has been a lot of work.”
The American Legion is a community-service organization founded in March 1919 and chartered by the U.S. Congress in August of the same year. It currently has 3 million members worldwide in nearly 15,000 posts. The posts are organized into 55 departments, one for each of the 50 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines.
“There are so many benefits to joining the American Legion,” said Adjutant Officer Stanford Davis, an Air Force aircraft mechanic during the Vietnam War. “It is also a chance to get together with other men that have served their country.
Finance Officer Raymond Reynolds, a former Army recruiter and gulf war veteran, agreed.
“I spent 22 years active duty,” said Reynolds, who served from 1983-2005. “This is a way I can keep in contact with those that served before me. I believe we are all brothers.”
American Legion Post 128 meets the second and fourth Thursday of every month at the Steep Falls Fire Barn.
“Now that the officer infrastructure is in place, we are now in the process of obtaining our own building,” said Peter Hassapelis, state American Legion public relations committee chairman.
The post is currently open to anyone in the Lakes Region who has served or is serving in any branch of the military, including the National Guard.
For more information on joining the Standish post, contact Mike Stevens, vice commander and membership committee chairman, at 642-2337
For more information on the American Legion organization, log on to its Web site, www.legion.org.
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