|
| |
|
November 18, 1999 DES MOINES, Iowa -- Honoring deceased veterans is the most frequent activity for the American Legion post in Knoxville, site of one of the three Veterans Administration hospitals in Iowa. "We bury and average of one a week here in the Knoxville area," said Jack Spaur, post adjutant. "A lot of the folks we participate in we don't know. They come here for their terminal illness and die, and we do the rights for it." In the last two years, 20 of those burials have been for Knoxville's own members, most of them from the group of World War II veterans who make up close to 90 percent of the post's 175 members and are dying at a national rate of 1,000 a day. "Our post will probably cease to exist in 10 years," Spaur said. "When we lose the World War II veterans, we're going to lose the Legion, unless something happens." In the face of the slowly dwindling number of active, older members of the American Legion, Iowa Legion posts are trying to make the changes necessary to continue to survive and provide services to veterans and their relatives, both at the cemetery and at the post. In 1998 there were 74,766 members in Iowa Legions, the lowest numbers since before 1946, when World War II veterans returned to Iowa and more than doubled membership to 110,930, Legion records said. There are currently 273,400 veterans in Iowa, down from 291,699 in 1995 and 307,007 in 1990. Brian Bales, executive director of the Commission of Veterans Affairs in Iowa, said veteran service organizations such as the Legion are worried about membership because a high percentage of their members are World War II and Korean War veterans, who are now in their late 70s or early 80s. Jim Demarest, the Legion's state adjutant, said he didn't think the Legion was a dying organization, but that Iowa post leaders need "to wake up and smell the roses." He said he's sure that the Legion will lose 10 percent of the posts in Iowa in the next five years, either by losing their members or by consolidating with other nearby posts. The problem, Demarest said, is a combination of post leaders following inactive policies and not pursuing younger members. He pointed out the post in Fairfield, which has 100 members, all older than 70, has sold its building and has not recruited any new members from a nearby military base. Demarest gave it five years before it folded. "It's the mentality," Demarest said. "The problem is the leadership has to be willing to step aside, but first act as a mentor to younger veterans." Demarest pointed out the post in Urbandale as an example of the kind of turn around possible. Bud Rushenberg, commander of the post, said that membership has gone from 252 members with minimal attendence seven years ago to 442 members. "If you are going to have a Legion post that is active, you have to have some functions there to attract people," Rushenberg said. He said they have had meals, open houses and Christmas parties, and have targeted younger members by giving out $20 and $50 bonds to each new child of a member. Demarest said that posts in a large city don't have an advantage over posts in smaller towns, because in smaller towns the Legion typically plays a larger role in hosting weddings, funerals and other social events. But he said many of the posts in smaller towns are selling their buildings and holding meetings where they are less visible in the community. "There are a lot of these small town posts without a post home existing only because one person sends in the dues," Demarest said. "A lot of the times it could come down to one individual." Demarest said about one-third of the posts have followed stories like Urbandale's post, but that another third are "last-man organizations" or "paper posts" that don't hold meetings and exist as they are. "Some posts are trying to keep it going until all their members die, and that's it," he said. Knoxville's Legion was such a post before Spaur and some friends turned it around. The post hadn't had a meeting for 10 to 15 years before that. "It got to the point where if some of us didn't pick it up, we were going to lose the Legion here," Spaur said. Demarest, Bales, Spaur and Rushenberg agreed that the future of the Legion may depend on consolidating with other posts or with other organizations such as Veterans of Foreign Wars. Bales said there is probably some reluctance on the whole, but that if veterans organizations are going to continue to survive and represent veterans, they are going to have to merge. "There are some of us who feel the time may be right for many of these organizations to merge, so we could have one unified, strong voice," said Bales, who is also concerned about the future lobbying power of veterans. "It is paramount to go out and recruit some of these younger veterans so that their voice could be heard," he said. Demarest also sees a solution in recruiting new members, pointing out that only 30 percent of eligible Iowa veterans are members, leaving more than 168,000 non-members in Iowa. "The problem that I see is a lot of our posts are not going out to attract these younger members," he said. "Our biggest problem is that they haven't been asked." |