Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
The American Legion Post 503 in Saratoga boasts a membership of 88, but its mainstays are (from left) Armin Kippes, adjutant; Bill Meehan, chaplain/historian; Ed Wark, first vice commander; Ray Gallaher, commander; Werner Springer, judge advocate/services officer; and Mario Chisessi, second vice commander.
Never Forget
The American Legion vowed to remember always, but dwindling membership makes it an uphill battle
By Sandy Sims
Ray Gallaher and Ed Wark, both 74 years old, planned to salute Saratoga's flag as it went up on Veterans Day. Gallaher, a World War II veteran, is this year's commander of Saratoga's American Legion Post 503. Wark is the first vice commander. As Legionnaires, they've sworn "never, never to forget" the veterans who laid down their lives for America. Gallaher called around to find out the particulars, and he found out no ceremony is planned for Nov. 11 in Saratoga or Los Gatos this year.
Years ago, Veterans Day was altogether different on the local scene.
During the eras of the first and second world wars, young men either volunteered or were drafted for war, and small towns all had their fair share of veterans. These were popular wars, or noble wars, as some call them. The community's residents lined the streets, kids on dads' shoulders, all of them cheering as the veterans marched through town. Soldiers knew what they fought for--freedom, democracy and the "American way," and our movies made them heroes.
Marnya Campbell remembers when she was a little girl in Los Gatos. "We were always having parades," she says. The veterans came out to march every time. "My father [a WWI veteran] proudly donned his American Legion uniform and marched in all of them. Sometimes they rode the parade in cars," she says. "Patriotism was the order of the day."
Marnya Campbell's father, Happer Phelps, a veteran of World War I, was a founder of the Los Gatos American Legion Post 158.
Photograph courtesy of Marnya Campbell
Campbell's father, Happer "Hap" Phelps, who founded California Roofing Co. in San Jose, helped organize the Los Gatos American Legion Post 158 in December 1919. Sixty-five veterans joined. Dues were 20 cents a month, and there was no initiation fee. In the beginning, they met, partied and swapped war stories in the Odd Fellows Hall, which today is Mountain Charley's restaurant. After a couple of other meeting places and WWII, they built a hall on Main Street, in the building that now houses the Los Gatos Recreation Department.
The Saratoga post would come along some 70 years later, long after the Los Gatos post merged with Campbell because of dwindling membership.
Although some people believe the American Legion's strong conservative bent is out of step with modern times, the organization has been a powerful advocate for American veterans since it began in France in March 1919.
American soldiers were stranded in Paris, waiting to come home, when a group of them met to find ways to raise the troops' morale. This meeting gave birth to the American Legion. By December 1919, the new organization had a preamble, a charter, a constitution and a name. Legion posts popped up all over the U.S. Over the next 24 years, the Legion became a major force in getting the Veterans' Bureau (the forerunner of the Veterans' Administration) up and running. The Legion later was instrumental in getting the administration elevated to Cabinet-level status as the Department of Veterans' Affairs in March 1989.
The Legion also came up with the GI Bill of Rights. Again, Legionnaires held a meeting--this time in 1943 at Legion headquarters in Indianapolis. WWI veterans, recalling their own difficulties coming home from war, were concerned about the men returning from WWII. After the meeting, the national commander went back to his hotel and wrote out the first draft of the GI Bill on hotel stationery. In 1944, Roosevelt signed the bill into law.
This bill meant returning U.S. soldiers could obtain financial assistance from the government to get an education and buy a home, among other things. Many observers credit the nation's technological and scientific advances and today's booming economy to the GI Bill. By 1946, the Legion's membership topped 3 million. The Legion also started Boys' State and Girls' State, a program teaching high-school students about democracy by putting them into local, state or federal government offices for one intense week. As high-schoolers, both President Clinton and NBC-TV news anchor Tom Brokaw participated in Boys' State. The Legion sponsors baseball leagues, disaster emergency services, blood donor programs and a host of other community services.
"I didn't join the Legion," says Willys Peck, a WWII veteran who lives in Saratoga, "but I owe them for my education."
Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph
Los Gatos celebrated the end of World War I with an Armistice Day parade featuring members of the local American Legion.
World War II was followed by other wars, or "conflicts," in Korea and Vietnam, and U.S. involvement in Panama, Grenada, Somalia, Lebanon, the Persian Gulf, Bosnia and Kosovo. The Cold War ended. Patriotism faded. Instead of celebrating soldiers' heroism, Americans began to question the nation's military activity.
This mood has affected the Legion's membership. Most posts in Santa Clara County are fighting to keep their membership up. Of the 2.8 million Legionnaires nationwide, 50 percent to 60 percent are WWII veterans, now in their 70s and 80s. According to the United Veterans' Council of Santa Clara County, this group is dying off at the rate of 1,000 per day. Vietnam veterans make up the next largest membership at 820,000.
"Sometimes we have a hard time even getting a quorum of five to our meetings," Ed Wark says of Saratoga's post, which has 88 members from Los Gatos, Saratoga and other cities. Despite problems attracting members to meetings, the post won the district membership trophy three years in a row. Most pay their yearly dues of $27, but few show up for meetings. "Maybe it's the stairs," Wark says. Members are at the age when many struggle with the infirmities of growing older. Some, however, manage to attend. A 97-year-old woman who is a WWI veteran attended last year's district Christmas party.
Others pass away. Wark scans the obituaries every morning, looking for names of Legionnaires. He calls the spouses and tells them of the Legion's death benefits. "They usually don't know about them," he says. When they are able, Wark and Gallaher don their Legion uniforms and go to Legionnaires' funerals as a show of support.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Armin Kippes, a former U.S. Army sergeant, now serves as adjutant in the American Legion's Post 503.
Mario Chisessi, a WWII veteran and second vice commander of Post 503 says that one Santa Clara County post actually does burial ceremonies for Legionnaires. "They are very busy these days," Chisessi says.
Post 503 meets upstairs in the IOOF (International Order of Odd Fellows) hall at 14144 Oak Street in Saratoga. However, there's no American Legion sign on the building. Gallaher explains that the city has a limit on square footage of signs, and the building is at the limit now. "But we are working on it," he says.
Gallaher says the post also is working at getting some projects going and becoming more visible in the community. "The town doesn't even know we are here," he says. "We want them to know that we give to the community."
Post 503 joined the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce recently, looking to create more visibility. The Legion is a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to "help keep our society--our society," Gallaher says. Post 503 is selling $10 gift-checkbooks with coupons for Bay Area restaurants and entertainment spots as a fundraiser.
Meetings are simple: They open with the standard Legion format, take care of business, and then enjoy fellowship. "One thing," Gallaher says, "when people come in the door of the Legion their rank is left behind. We are all equal here."
Werner Springer, a Vietnam vet and one of Post 503's original members, remembers how the post got started. "Several of us were Odd Fellows members," he says. "We started talking about being veterans and decided to start our own Legion Post." In 1989, they chartered Saratoga's Post 503. Last month, Post 503 swore in Dorothy Chisessi, who served in the WWII Army Nurse Corps, as its first woman member.
Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Although American Legion Post 503 has difficulty getting more than a handful of members to meetings, it has won the district membership award three years in a row.
A veteran qualifies for Legion membership if he or she has served honorable active duty in any branch of the U.S. military for at least one day during any national emergency.
"We are still in a state of emergency in the Persian Gulf because our boys are not all home yet," Gallaher says. So anyone in the military now can join the legion.
"You can't market this organization," says Lee Harris, deputy director of public relations for the Legion.
Every post differs according to its community. Los Gatan and WWII veteran Jerry Sicular says he used to go to the Palo Alto post with his brother because he found the members there were a high-powered, interesting group--some generals, some CEOs. The post also had speakers on all kinds of topics, he says.
Sicular joined the Legion after he retired from teaching. "To me, it's just a nice bunch of old guys with something in common and a way to get out of the house."
Many retirees join up just for this reason. Bill Meehan, a WWII/Korea veteran and Saratoga post historian and chaplain, joined up after retirement. Through The American Legion magazine, he connected with his former shipmates and has been attending reunions since 1990, he says.
According to Harris, the Legion has more members now than it did 10 years ago. That's after a three-year slump. "It's really the changing of the guard," he says.
Ray Gallaher (left) appears with a couple of his army buddies in World War II. Today he's the commander of Saratoga's American Legion Post 503.
Photograph courtesy of Ray Gallaher
Although the Veterans' Affairs department looks after benefits and other veterans' entitlements, the American Legion sees its role as an advocate on more controversial issues.
From its lobbying office in Washington, D.C., the Legion has confronted the government over such issues as Agent Orange and Gulf War syndrome. Legionnaires are working to keep veterans entitlements from shrinking along with the military. And although their numbers have diminished in local posts, Legionnaires still wield power. Their conventions draw such prominent speakers as President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Even though the military is shrinking, many Americans will celebrate Veterans Day at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month for the 80th consecutive year. This was the time originally set for WWI's Armistice Day, the day of peace. After WWII, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day to commemorate all soldiers who served during wartime.
Richard F. Murphy, a WWII veteran with the United Veterans' Council says, "For the merchants, it's just business as usual."
Los Gatos and Saratoga residents who wish to celebrate in grander fashion, however, are welcome to watch the midday parade in downtown San Jose on Nov. 11.
Gallaher and Wark would like to take a ride down to San Jose to enjoy the festivities there. Wark said getting there isn't a simple task. "First you have to find a place to park, and then walk a long ways," he said. "You know, we're getting up there. It's not so easy."
The San Jose parade will start at noon at the Arena and go east on Market to Park and turn right. The viewing stand will be at Park Avenue and Market Street in front of the Tech Museum. At 11 a.m. parachutists will drop in front of the viewing stand in front of the Tech Museum.
For information about the Saratoga Post, call Ray Gallaher at 408.251.0834 or see the organization's home page at http://www.sirius.com/~amkippes/Post503.htm. Meetings are the first Tuesday of each month at 8 p.m. at 14144 Oak St.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
