When I was in Vietnam working for Stars and Stripes in 1972, I came back from the field to our Saigon headquarters and regaled my colleagues with a tale of my close encounter with North Vietnamese Army rockets. A friend from UPI was taking my picture on top of a captured Russian tank in Kontum City when four 122 mm. rockets whistled in—short, long, right and left. As I scrambled off the tank and into a bunker, I fell on the lens of my camera, breaking it.
Over the years, the closeness of those rockets has gone all Brian Williams. The distance has shrunk from 500 yards to 100. By the time I’m 75, I’ll probably be saying that I won a Purple Heart due to shrapnel wounds. These kinds of stories tend to conflate, right Brian?
Back in ’72, Frank Castro, a sergeant first class and my editor, listened to my story and said “Smith, I can just see you in 10 years at the American Legion hall, guzzling beer and telling war stories.” Maybe because I didn’t want to fulfill that prediction, I never joined the Legion or the VFW.
When I told this story to Bob Robesch, 69, of Albertson, a past commander of the Nassau County region of the American Legion and a 20-year member of Williston Park Post 144, he laughed.
“We do have a Happy Hour from 2:30 to 5 on Wednesdays,” he said. “We have some food, watch the horse races, but we don’t tell war stories. We talk about politics, the Super Bowl. It’s a very homogeneous group. We get along together and have fun, but we also do a lot of other things.”
Robesch said the post was formed in 1927, bought the building at 730 Willis Ave. in 1947 and rebuilt it after a fire in 1976, doubling its size. The post now has about 250 members and is involved in these philanthropic activities:
*Collecting donations to buy toiletries and coupon books for residents of the Northport VA nursing home, where ther post runs programs such as “A Night at the Races.”
*Assembling packages of toiletries, books and other items to send to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
*Sending items and donations to the national Legion’s Operation Comfort Warriors program which provides sweat suits, DVDs, puzzles, electronic devices, books, calling cards and more for disabled or ill service members.
*Collecting donations for indigent families of deployed Long Island National Guard troops to help them pay mortgages, maintain businesses and pay their bills.
*Paying to send teenagers to Morrisville State College for a week-long boys state summer program involving citizenship and leadership training.
*Sponsoring two Boy Scout Troops and a Girl Scout Troop, the latter through their women’s auxiliary.
“We have a couple of World War II members,” Robesch said, “but the preponderance of our membership is Vietnam era. We’re open to any vet who served during wartime. We have a few Korea vets, 10 or 15 Gulf War people. They’re just coming to an age where they have enough free time. A lot of the guys coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan now have a lot more on their minds than joining an American Legion post.”
He added, “There are 2.5 million Legion members nationwide. Our post is mostly male but we have a few ladies. We tried to recruit ladies but there aren’t a lot of female vets in the area. The VFW is for people who served overseas in a war zone. Our missions are similar but we’re bigger than VFW and we have more outreach to vets and their families than they do. But ninety percent of people who belong to the Legion also belong to the VFW.”
The Williston Park Legion post is in the midst of a fundraising drive to repair a leaking roof. Robesch, a Navy veteran who served on the USS Coral Sea off the coast of Vietnam in the late ‘60s, said ,“The roof has three sections. We’re pretty sure we have to replace the front portico and the second section over the lobby and the coat room. The back part seems to be OK. It’s going to cost $25,000 to $100,000 depending on what they find. We put together a fundraising committee and plan to have several fundraising events over the next year.”
The post has paid off its mortgage and draws rental income from classes given for policemen and firemen and also draws rent from outside affairs. “Not a lot of people are having big parties these days,” Robesch said. “One tack we’re taking is we’re trying to get some FEMA money. If they [designate] us as a warming center, during a storm we could provide blankets, cots, food, use a generator for electricity. We’re working on that. “
To make a donation for the roof repair fund, call 516-746-1958 or send a check to American Legion Hall, Post No. 144, P.O. Box 1, Williston Park, NY 11596.
Jim Smith, 66, of Williston Park, is a Vietnam War veteran and has been a contributor to the Mineola American since 1988. He retired Dec. 31, 2014 after being a Newsday reporter and editor since 1966.
