American Legion members look ahead - not back - as they contribute to community projects
By Bruce Barton, Town Crier Staff Writer
 joe hu/town crier American Legion Post 558 of Los Altos members Bill Goss, Ken Girdley, John Frier and Lew Miller gather by the historical Legion Hall on First Street. |
Memorial Day means another visit to the cemetery for members of American Legion Post 558, serving Los Altos, Los Altos Hills and Mountain View. The commemoration at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Los Altos has been scheduled for more years than anyone can remember. The traditional program remains the same each year - an opening prayer, lowering the American flag to half-staff, a bugler playing “Taps” - but the thoughts and prayers are freshly heartfelt as Legion members pay tribute to fallen colleagues.
Memorial Day services aside, Legionnaires see their involvement as looking ahead and helping the community, rather than looking back and “sharing old war stories,” as one member put it. The local Legion’s involvement proves wide reaching and diverse. Members’ actions defy stereotypes of vets recalling their younger days.
Legion members met last week at the historical American Legion Hall on First Street to talk about their activities. Their energy and enthusiasm for their community work was clearly evident.
“There’s not a day goes by that I’m not doing something for the Legion,” said Bill Goss, a past post and district commander and 21-year member. Copy that for Hank Nagao, a former lieutenant colonel involved in some Legion-oriented activity nearly every day.
“We’re not about nostalgia,” said John Frier, a member of the post’s board of directors and a post-Korean War veteran.
“Our theme is, continuing to serve,” said current post commander Ken Girdley, a Vietnam War-era vet. “We’re trying to serve the community as best we can. Youth is one of our main areas of concentration.”
Youth activities
To that end, the post is sponsoring students for its annual Boys State and Girls State events (June 17-24 for boys, in Sacramento, July 1-8 for girls, in Claremont). The post sponsors six boys and three girls from Los Altos, Mountain View and St. Francis high schools to participate in a simulated legislative session that gives the students experience in lawmaking and leadership. The post also sponsored six students for the annual Youth Environmental Conference run by the U.S. Forest Service at Sly Park in the El Dorado National Forest. The conference, held May 19-22 this year, exposes young people to the business of land management in a national forest.
Something new for this American Legion post was the formation of two 558-sponsored baseball teams last year. The teams begin their second season Sunday. Post member Michael Welsh, who has boys in high school and college, initiated the effort for the renewed sports program. Welsh single-handedly resurrected the Post’s baseball program, which had been dormant for several years.
“I was looking for a baseball program for some of the boys in Los Altos and Mountain View,” he began, and brought up the idea of a team at the Legion meeting. “They said, if you want, you start it,” said Welsh, a former Marine and Vietnam-era vet.
Competing with other Legion-sponsored teams from Pacifica to Gilroy, the two 558 teams (in 19-and-under and 17-and-under categories) played good ball. Teams comprise students from Los Altos, Mountain View and St. Francis high schools.
Work with scouts
Then there’s the Legion’s long-standing, strong relationship with the local Boy and Girl Scouts. One program involves donating flags to the Girl Scouts who sell them to downtown Los Altos merchants, a program Goss refers to as “Flags Across Los Altos.” The merchants display the flags in front of their businesses and the girls apply the proceeds to their group projects.
“I like the idea that (the American Legion) gives us an opportunity for community service,” said Jenny Hood, leader and support manager for Girl Scout Service Unit 8 serving Los Altos and Mountain View. As part of the flag program downtown, Girl Scouts also are responsible for cleaning out the holes in the sidewalk where the flags are placed.
“We’re very close,” said Post member Nagao of the partnership with the Girl Scouts. Local troops regularly participate in the Post’s Memorial Day ceremonies, serving as “greeters” and handing out small flags to participants. They work with Post members at the annual “Glorious Fourth” community picnic on the Fourth of July at Shoup Park, where they also distribute flags.
Nagao said local Boy Scout troops help the Legion decorate the train engine replica that is a staple of the annual Los Altos Festival of Lights parade held in November. The locomotive is run by a fraternity of the Legion called the “40 et (and) 8,” a reference to narrow gauge railroads in France. Local scouts ride in the locomotive during the parade.
The local Post awards $50 savings bonds as eighth-grade graduation gifts. For years, Post 558 has presented the bonds to students at seven local middle schools, including Blach and Egan in Los Altos. The others are Crittenden, St. Simon, Miramonte, Graham and St. Joseph. The schools select the students based on academics and citizenship.
On another scholarship note, Nagao said the “40 et 8″ fraternity contributes $30,000 a year toward nursing scholarships at San Jose State University, and Ohlone, Evergreen and De Anza colleges.
Welsh summed up Post 558’s commitment to youth this way: “Youth (these days) need more help than ever. We want to teach them to be good citizens.”
The flag business
Where there’s a United States flag, chances are the local American Legion Post has something to do with its being there. Nagao, for one, has personally lowered flags in the downtown Community Plaza to half-staff on Memorial Day. The Post works with the city of Los Altos and other groups to provide and replace flags, including the replacement of 1,440 flags last year at Gate of Heaven Cemetery.
On Flag Day, June 10, Legion members retire old flags in a ceremony at Gate of Heaven.
Other outreach
Post 558 members maintain an active outreach in two other notable areas. Members work closely with the 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Field, attending to the needs of troops recently back from Iraq. Girdley said members have provided lodging for families of military personnel. The Los Altos Post also contributes $2,400 a year to the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System (otherwise known as the VA hospital on Miranda Avenue). Welsh said the troop invites and transports vets at the VA hospital to watch the Post-sponsored baseball teams in action.
Meanwhile, troop members raise the Legion’s visibility through booths at the annual Fourth of July picnic and the Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival, slated for July 8 and 9 this year.
Lew Miller, a past Post commander and a Legion member for approximately 12 years, said members make appearances at local schools discussing their lives in the service. Miller spoke recently to students at Branham High School in San Jose. The World War II vet spoke highly of his Navy experience. “If we hadn’t gone into the military, we never would have left our homes,” he said.
The Hall
Post 558, currently with 235 members, was chartered in 1938, the same year the Legion Hall at 347 First St. was built by Legion volunteers.
Girdley noted the bowed edge of the west side of the building, facing First Street, and joked that Navy vets must have built it. Members tell of former President Jimmy Carter’s meeting at the Hall with officials from the Los Altos-based David and Lucile Packard Foundation during a 1970s visit that was not publicized at the time.
The Hall, rented out often for exercise classes and special events, is “our money machine,” said Miller. The post generates more than $50,000 in rent annually, most of which goes into programs benefiting the community.
“We’re proud of the fact that 100 percent of any dollar donated is distributed,” Girdley said.
Post 558 leaders believe in maintaining a positive image through their actions, Girdley said. “I have such strong feelings about what we’re doing.” He added: “We’re paid - but not in dollars.”
