Bob Kastens and Nole Cook are leading the commemoration of Veterans Day on November 9th, 2006. This was the final Deer Park American Legion get-together of Post 213.
Veterans Day was observed by Post 213 of Deer Park in 2006 on Thursday the 9th of November at the Deer Park Community Center. But this observance was held on a sad note as the American Legion and the American Legion Auxiliary have disbanded.
This was the final meeting at the Community Center. The membership has had an aging and dwindling number of members, most with service experience during World War II. During the last few months the Legion lost three long-time members, Bill Stuntz, Vernon Setter and Orville Gust. At the October meeting the remaining members decided to disband the Deer Park unit.
Some Deer Park Legionnaires will continue to attend Legion events at other nearby locations and New Richmond seemed to be a common location that was sited.
The Deer Park Legion has saluted the buried veterans at Cylon Cemetery, Saint Bridgets Cemetery, the East Immanuel Cemetery and Calvary Cemetery at Deer Park, every Memorial Day in addition to other ceremonies throughout the year.
We may see Deer Park Legionnaires once again at Calvary Cemetery on Memorial Day but they will not be from a Deer Park unit.
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The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help, war-time veterans organization. A community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members -- men and women -- in nearly 15,000 American Legion Posts worldwide. These Posts are organized into 55 Departments -- one each for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, and the Philippines.
The American Legion's national headquarters is in Indianapolis, Indiana, with additional offices in Washington, DC. In addition to thousands of volunteers serving in leadership and program implementation capacities in local communities to the Legion's standing national commissions and committees, the national organization has a regular full-time staff of about 300 employees. - From the American Legion web site.
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Bob Kastens on the left, opened the Veterans Day commemoration in Deer Park on November 11, 2003. Bob served the United States during WWII. We have heard the saying "War is hell". But it obviously is not hell all the time. Bob recounts a humorous story about his handling of POW's, dropping them off to visit relatives, and picking them up later when returning to camp. It is one of those incredible stories wars generate and his 1 minute 30 second description is fascinating with a chuckle besides.
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| Larry Lovegren led with the Pledge of
Allegiance to the Flag and a prayer. Pictured below are Deer Park legionnaires and friends getting together for the November 2003 observance. |
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 Pete Thompson |
 Janice Thompson |
 Lola Fouks |
 Diane and Nole Cook |
 Arild Matson |
 Bernard Matthys |
 Muriel Volkert |
 The Elden Spencers |
Legionnaires not pictured here are Ruth Severson, Bill and Ann Stuntz, Charlene Kastens, Arial and Vernon Setter but were photographed previously at the Thanksgiving 2001 supper and at the December 2002 Holiday Fair. |
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Calvary Cemetery Links
