for American Legion Post #142; Hominy, Oklahoma.
>>>by Gary Lanham

Well, the 7 February 2013 meeting was exceptional, capped off by a brief ceremony raising the new flag in front of the Hut.  How long has it been since I heard “Present Arms!” and “Order Arms!”?  It was a great feeling standing shoulder to shoulder with veterans ranging from WWII to modern day to respect our flag.  How many great experiences and meaningful contributions rested among this Band of Brothers?  Because of the level of humility of folks that “Just did my job.”  I don’t think anyone will ever know.

Post Commander Jim Frazier conducted our meeting, after the pledge and an opening prayer by Rex Mantooth, our Post Chaplin.  There was much to cover, as we received the highlights from the Mid Winter Conference.  The priorities that came out of that conference were, first, recruiting.  By increasing our numbers, we also increase our lobbying impact of behalf of veterans everywhere.  Second, to continue to be involved in community programs such as Veteran Centers and overall positive local community involvement.  On this one, I think Post #142 has been exceptional with all I have seen, in my less than one year attendance.  They also mentioned a program called Oratory Contest that encourages local High School  students to compete in speech presentations at a local level, then expanding to, eventually a national level.  There were many other items discussed that I will cover in next week’s offering.

The District 1A and 1B Convention will be held in Pryor OK at Post 182 April 27^th. I believe there will be selections of District Officers and a sharing of ideas and planning for the year ahead.  Then this summer, (5-7 July) the Oklahoma State Convention will be held in Oklahoma City at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Center (Old Clarion).  I would encourage any veteran who isn’t involved with our post, to come to our meetings the first and third Thursdays of each month to get details.  More details are listed at the end of my article.

On a more personal note, there is always interesting conversations that float about toward the end of the meeting.  It was great to meet Eli Prather’s son Cory who came to visit.  There was conversation about the local High School and ideas on how to engage students in a way that helped them understand the legacy that they will inherit.

Of course, that led to reminiscing of school days amongst the attending group.  The most memorable was: though many enjoyed different courses of study, many did not enjoy Algebra.  For me it was that letters and numbers do not belong together except on calendars and call signs.   Then Jim XXXXX piped up that Pi=R Squared threw him off, as “everyone knows Pies are round”.

Our regular meetings are the 1^st and 3^rd Thursdays of each month at 1900 hours (7:00 PM) and our Monday morning Koffee Klatch meetings over biscuits and gravy (or waffles) where we keep up on each other’s mischievous doings run generally from 7 am to 9 am . We will not meet on 18 February as it is a President’s Day (I’m not going there).