Restoring American Legion Post 34

Two local veterans are making an effort to preserve the history and legacy of the American Legion Post 34 in Graham. The two are searching for new members in order to keep the post active.

The American Legion is the largest veterans service organization in the United States. The mission of the organization is to enhance the well-being of America’s veterans, its families, its military and its communities through the devotion to mutual helpfulness.

Navy veteran Stan Burnett and Air Force veteran David Gann have made it their mission to breathe life back into the local organization.

“The reason why I’m doing this is because we need it. We need this energy, especially what’s happening in light of society today and what is happening with our veterans that are coming back from overseas seeing combat and the enormous, in my word, presence of PTSD. …We need to be here for our community,” Burnett said. “We need to step up instead of sitting on the sidelines and chewing somebody out from our couch. We need to step up and be heard, be active.”

The post had previously been renewed at the end of 2018 by a group of local veterans. Gann said the post commander moved from Graham and since then the post has been inactive.

The two veterans held a meeting Friday, Jan. 5 in Graham to discuss the revitalization of the post to provide benefits to the community.

“There’s a boatload of benefits. If you’ve ever been around the American Legion... they get together and they do things for the benefit of the community, the youth and the veterans,” Burnett said. “With veterans the way that they are in today’s time, I believe that they really need some assistance. If nothing else, a pair of ears to listen to.”

Membership to the post can be obtained by visiting legion.org/join. Membership is $45 per year and veterans are eligible if they served at least one day of active military duty since Dec. 7, 1941 and were honorably discharged or are still serving active military duty honorably.

The number one priority of the two veterans is to get the organization-required 15 members for Post 34 so it can remain active.

The American Legion district commander reached out to Gann in October 2023 and said he would allow them time before making the post inactive. Gann said making the post inactive would lose the history that is behind Post 34.

“What he’ll probably do in the next few months, if we don’t get those numbers, is he will deactivate this charter. And then if it ever came back it would have to be a new charter, and it would be a different number post,” Gann said. “...But the other thing is if he closed that then we would have to talk to the state post to see what we could do locally and (the district commander) wouldn’t be involved anymore because he would have closed it.”

Gann was in Post 34 back in late 1980s and was part of the local post for around three to four years before moving away from Graham. Along with his membership in Graham, Gann has been involved with the American Legion organization for around 22 years, so for him it is important to keep it in Graham.

“What really got me motivated is when I sent that email down to the department and they sent me to the district commander... and he told me he had the paperwork sitting on his desk right now for closing (the post). And that’s what he intended to do, until he got my email and he (said he) would give us time to see,” Gann said. “I think it would be a benefit to the county if we could (revitalize it).”

The two have sent out letters to existing members of Post 34 and have discussed setting up tables at various locations in Graham to recruit members.

Burnett said an important part of the organization is also helping the youth of Graham to realize patriotism and more about those who serve. He said starting a care package program for the students locally would help in those efforts.

“I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that if we engage the kids and we use that platform through the American Legion to build these care packages and let these kids then converse with the troops overseas it would do wonders for the kids to understand what freedom is,” he said. “We’re seeing an almost moment by moment erosion of what that understanding is. ...It’s under threat right now. So that’s why I’m doing it. Try to, at least within this corner of the world, breathe life into it.”

For more information about the local post, contact Burnett at 786-650-6304, or Gann at 940-550-4161.