PASCACK VALLEY AREA, N.J.—American Legion members and their many supporters in the Pascack Valley, in Bergen County, throughout New Jersey, and beyond celebrated the 100th birthday of the Legion Sept. 29.
For Hillsdale’s Gen. Leonard E. Wood American Legion Post 162 and Park Ridge’s Cpl. Jedh C. Barker Memorial Post 153 the anniversary is all the more meaningful—it is their 100th birthday too.
The American Legion, headquartered in Indianapolis, is powered by state, U.S. territory, and overseas departments; these in turn are composed of posts and their subsidiary units, squadrons, and riders.
The organization, 4,000 strong in the county and whose motto is “For God and Country,” was established in Paris March 15, 1919 by 1,000 officers and men, delegates from all the units of the American Expeditionary Forces.
It was ratified in St. Louis May 8–10, 1919, when the Legion was formally recognized by the troops who served in the United States.
The organization has served veterans, their families, and their communities ever since. It boasted approximately 1,800,000 members in 2018.
Commander Francis “Fran” Carrasco of the Bergen County American Legion (“The Big Bee”) led a celebration Sept. 29 bringing recognition to the 23 American Legion Posts in Bergen County chartered in 1919.
At the gala, at Elan Catering & Events in Lodi, centennial posts also represented from Bogota, Carlstadt, Cliffside Park, Closter, East Rutherford, Englewood, Fort Lee, Garfield, Hackensack, Hasbrouck Heights, Leonia, Lodi, Lyndhurst, Maywood, Oradell, Ridgefield, Ridgefield Park, Ridgewood, Rutherford, Teaneck, and Wood-Ridge.
Funds raised were donated to The American Legion National Emergency Fund and the Children’s Organ Transplant Association.
Past Post 162 Commander Zoltan Horvath of Hillsdale was event photographer. He and Pascack Press photographer Murray Bass filed photos showing a grand event of stars and bars, snappy salutes, processions, speeches, the cutting of birthday cake—and many heartfelt hugs.
The Centennial Committee, composed of Legion family members from across Bergen County and chaired by Michael Burhart of Lyndhurst, landed Theodore “Ted” Roosevelt IV as the keynote speaker.
Roosevelt, chair of The American Legion’s 100th Anniversary Honorary Committee, is grandson of the American Legion’s co-founder and great-grandson of the 26th U.S. president.
War veterans band together
While initially the Legion was composed only of those who served during World War I, it later admitted veterans of World War II (1942), the Korean War (1950), the Vietnam War (1966), the Lebanon, Grenada, and Panama hostilities (1990), Operation Desert Shield/Storm (1991), and the wars in Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2001).
One of the dignitaries offering congratulations, Bill Pascrell Jr., U.S. Representative for the state’s 9th Congressional district, observed that to this day the focus of the American Legion is on the care of disabled and sick veterans.
He said the Legion has been instrumental in establishing hospitals and other support services for vets and that the organization was influential in the creation of the U.S. Veterans Administration in 1930 and the enactment of the GI Bill of Rights in 1944.
“These two policies have helped more than 10,500,000 veterans afford college or vocational training programs and assisted more than 5,600,000 veterans in their efforts to purchase homes,” he said.
The Legion moreover is dedicated to charity and community. Posts across the country donate more than 3.7 million hours of volunteer service. Posts have also helped collect more than 80,000 pints of blood every year for donation, making The American Legion the single largest blood donor, Pascrell said.
He added that the Legion and its members are focused on future generations by awarding more than 8,000 medals to Junior ROTC students and sponsoring more than 2,500 Scouting units that serve over 64,000 young people.
Finally, he said, they have awarded more than $4 million in awards to support individuals to go to college.
Entertainment was by The American Bombshells, whose shows deliver a red-blooded American retro look and sound.
Legion looks ahead
On Aug. 5, New Jersey Lt. Gov. Sheila Y. Oliver, standing in for Gov. Phil Murphy, signed joint New Jersey Assembly/Senate Bill SJR86, honoring the American Legion on the 100th anniversary of its founding.
Several Department of New Jersey officers attended, including commander Robert Newell, National Executive Committeeman (NEC) Chuck Robbins, alternate NECman Berley Hanna Jr., historian Ben Auletta, and Sergeant-at-Arms Alfred Wilson.
Oliver discussed the bill and the work of the Legion in a signing ceremony, noting the Legion is the nation’s largest veterans service organization with 295 American Legion posts in New Jersey.
Robbins said, “The state has also promised to continue working with the Legion in our next 100 years and hopes we continue that honorable service we do now. You sometimes think all that our organization does goes unnoticed or unappreciated, but it’s quite obvious the American Legion here in New Jersey is strong.”
Local posts celebrate
In Park Ridge, Post 153 (njalpost153.org) and its units held a large birthday party open house, with a cake adorned with 100 candles.
Displays included a large board featuring Pascack Press and other news clippings of post and auxiliary activities and accomplishments, as well as uniforms and other memorabilia.
The post said through Centennial Chairman Dick Bozzone, who has been organizing related events all year, “This gathering will be to toast those responsible for the century celebration but those who will be honored will not be there.”
The post dugout is a multipurpose basement with scores of photos of past and current members wearing their service uniforms posted on the walls. Those faces, looking as they did while in their teens and 20s, tell the story of Post 153, he said.
In the 1920s the post was enhanced by the chartering of an auxiliary. Scores of women who have served in this group have performed on countless occasions by supplementing the many activities of the post.
In addition to the contributions of the women in 1996, another valued component to Post 153 was formed: a Sons of the American Legion, whose name exemplifies the pride its members have by their relationship to post members, was organized.
Much like the auxiliary unit the sons’ contributions have also proven invaluable, Bozzone said.
In Hillsdale, Post 162 (americanlegionpost162.org)—serving Hillsdale, Woodcliff Lake, Old Tappan and beyond—made outstanding progress in advance of the centennial in arranging construction of the borough’s new veterans memorial site.
On Thursday, Sept. 19, the World War I Memorial, dedicated in 1922 by the then Township of Hillsdale, was removed from Veterans Park to a safe location while work commences.
The monument will be returned and placed among five new memorials that will honor those who served in every United States conflict since the American Revolution.
American Legion Post 162 is funding this new memorial with the help of a Bergen County grant. Construction is expected to take approximately a month, and dedication is expected before Veterans Day.
Donations are still welcome to help fully fund the project. For more information, visit AmericanLegionPost162.org.
On Sept. 4, the post reported it added members thanks to changes in requirements that allow all those who served honorably in the military since Dec. 7, 1941 to join the Legion.
“These men and women who served during the Cold War are now getting the recognition they deserve. The Legion National Commander reported that over 1,600 members of the military lost their lives during this period,” the post said.
For a 116-page PDF of the Bergen County American Legion’s centennial ad book, visit https://adobe.ly/2AE5Hwj. For Zoltan Horvath’s album of photos from the event, visit http://bit.ly/2IflZA3.