Menu
VFW Post leaders reflect on closure, changing times
The United States of America is different than it was in 1946.
That’s not an opinion, a value judgment or necessarily a lament.
It’s a simple fact that, from a cultural and demographic standpoint, the country is not the same as it was in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
In taking a long look at the matter, the leaders of General Jesse M. Lee VFW Post 1550 can see the larger trends at work that has led to posts across the country shuttering, ceasing operations or at least changing the ways in which they operate.
So it is with their own post, with Post Commander Mark Rogers making the announcement on June 12 that the post would close its doors at the end of the month.
Since then, a Fogle Realty sign has appeared in the yard at 819 S. Jackson St.
Ideally, according to Rogers and Senior Vice Commander Scott Pretorius, they’ll locate a smaller location and set up shop there.
For now, though, local leaders are awaiting their next steps.
As they move forward, Rogers and Pretorius seem philosophical about the current situation, recognizing that there are larger factors at work.
Part of this is simple numbers. It took a lot more people to fight wars 80 years ago. For that reason, there were a lot more “veterans of foreign wars” to fill the barrooms and banquet halls of “Veterans of Foreign Wars” posts nationwide.
The local post was founded in 1941, a couple of months before the U.S. entered World War II. That conflict provided more than its share of potential members within a few years.
“Every military age male in the United States, with an exception of a few here and there, in every small town, went to war,” Pretorius said. “I would have loved to be a fly on the wall in a VFW in 1946 — dance hall setting, shoulder-to-shoulder, everybody packed in. That’s just what you did on a weekend.
“And this is every small town and every big city — their VFW or their Legion was packed.”
Unfortunately, that generation is all but gone — with the local post losing its final World War II veteran back in April.
“We had so many men that fought in The War,” Rogers said, referring to WWII. “We just lost our last World War II vet — John Wood.”
It’s more than the sheer numbers, though, as the culture is just different too. “Happy hour” was a staple a couple of generations ago at VFWs and other “dinosaur clubs” as they’re now called.
“All the World War II vets — when they went back to the workforce — after the war they’d get off work, they’d stop by the VFW and have a few drinks before they went home,” Pretorius said. “That mentality doesn’t exist anymore. It just doesn’t.”
Then again, that was an era of single-income families when wives and kids were waiting at home.
“We gotta remember too that 50 years ago there were a lot of families that could live off a single income,” Rogers said. “Nowadays, it’s unheard of. It’s a struggle to have extra time, besides the baseball and all the activities that the kids do, to commit to an organization or a club and do things in the club setting.”
Pretorius, who was in charge of younger soldiers when he was in Afghanistan, notes that his former men wouldn’t have the time and energy to devote to an enterprise like the VFW.
“All of my soldiers, they would be in their early 30s still today,” Pretorius said. “They’re all working second shift, they all have young families, they all have things to do. Coming and hanging out at the VFW is probably not on the priority list for most of these guys.”
So sets in the reality for Post 1550 that a new paradigm is needed. What will that be? Post leaders are still figuring that out.
Plan A is to find some land and a smaller structure that can be more easily maintained. If that doesn’t pan out, the club could continue without a physical structure.
“There are other posts in the state that do that as well, and they have quite a few members,” Rogers said. “Because you don’t have a hard structure, it makes it a little easier to kind of be flexible.
“One in particular, Brownsburg, they work with the American Legion,” he continued. “They have different nights the VFW puts on dinner or some kind of event, and that’s their night to have, hopefully, a profitable night without actually having the structure itself.”
Still, leaving behind the structure itself is an emotional step to take, as the post has had just two homes in 82 years.
The first was at Indiana and Poplar streets, and it remained at that location until 1969 when it moved to the Jackson Street location. The current post still retains marks of the original, including a painting and the door from the entryway into the barroom, which was actually taken from the original post.
It’s a post that looks to celebrate the military history of Greencastle, one that includes Eli Lilly commanding the 21st Regiment of Indiana Volunteers during the Civil War, then later organizing the 18th Indiana Battery of Light Artillery, a group of which Rogers and Pretorius learned some interesting history.
“Mark and I found ourselves at the Indianapolis War Memorial Museum, and the curator directed our attention to a display from one of the wars,” Pretorius said. “There was a cannon there. He was talking about how Greencastle mustered the first artillery unit in the Civil War for the whole state. We didn’t put two and two together, but we have an artillery unit, a National Guard unit, in our town right now. Tying in with Greencastle military history, no wonder we have an artillery unit here, because this was the first artillery unit in Indiana.”
The post established an official connection to that unit, A Battery 2/150th Field Artillery, when it adopted it last year.
“When you officially adopt a unit, the VFW sends you a certificate and they also send you a small amount of funds to be able to cater parties or something along those lines for the unit,” Pretorius said. “That was one of the things that made us feel good was seeing all the young artillery men and women come to the VFW and being able to ‘show them the way,’ so to speak. Old folks sitting around talking to the young guys — I’m sure we bored them to death.”
The young soldiers were moved enough to present the VFW a token of their appreciation, bringing in a shell casing to put on display. The post accepted it, but asked that every member of the unit sign it, which they did and continue to do.
“Now whenever a new person arrives at their unit, they bring them here so they can sign the brass,” Pretorius said.
While the adoption of the unit is one form of community service, the hope is that it can do more in the community if not having to pay so much just to keep the building open.
One highly visible piece of history in the community is the Buzz Bomb on the courthouse square, a captured German V-1 bomb. It was the late Frank Durham, another of the post’s former World War II members, who spearheaded getting the bomb to Greencastle.
Now the Jesse M. Lee Post is the official caretaker of the Buzz Bomb, with the post even having the instructions on how to mix the paint for it. The Buzz Bomb is currently in need of such maintenance, but it may have to wait until other matters are settled.
Finally, there’s the history that goes into the name itself. Gen. Jesse M. Lee was a Putnam County native who was educated at Asbury College (now DePauw University) for one year before he enlisted as a private in the Union Army for the Civil War. He remained in the U.S. Army for more than 40 years, participating in the Indian campaigns, the Spanish-American War, Philippine Insurrection and the Boxer Rebellion in China.
He retired as a major general whose last command was at Fort Sam Houston in 1904-06.
That’s the heritage that, no matter the future, the leaders of Post 1550 don’t intend to forget. The key is figuring out the future not only of the local post, but of the VFW as a national entity, with Pretorius wondering how organizations like the VFW and Legion might unite under a single banner.
“We have identical missions, down to lobbyists in Washington, D.C., down to our writing programs for high school kids. We have the exact identical programs, it’s just that we have different names for them,” Pretorius said. “We’re so similar other than the technicalities of being an officer. It’s just one of those things of antiquity that I just wish we would put to rest and put all the veterans organizations under one roof and one name. Just think about what we could accomplish if we did that.”