By Daniel Hartill,Staff Writer
Iraq, Afghanistan conflicts adding to ranks of American Legion, VFW

AUBURN – Gary O’Connell leaned back on his heels, raised his right hand to his forehead in a salute and stared up at the American flag billowing against a darkened sky.

The Lewiston soldier – a member of the Maine Army National Guard for nearly 27 years – stood proudly with his chest out, his zippered vest, his turtleneck and his ball cap all decorated with the Operation Iraqi Freedom logo.

At his side, Korean War veteran Emmett Stuart, 72, snapped a similar salute. Then, glancing at the younger soldier, he smiled.

O’Connell and his contemporaries, the veterans of the war in Iraq, are slowly taking their place alongside the men and women who fought in past wars.

And, Stuart hopes, joining their clubs.

Organizations such as the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars need veterans like O’Connell. With an estimated 1,500 veterans of World War II dying each day, such groups are in danger of closing.

“We need them,” said Stuart, vice commander of New Auburn American Legion Post 153. “They’ll keep us going.”

The generational shift is evident to anyone who enters the South Main Street headquarters.

Antique photos of past commanders line the wall above the bar. Yet, a few feet away hangs a bright red “Welcome home 133rd” banner.

“We’re the new generation,” O’Connell said.

He joined the Legion in December 2003, just days after he received notice that he would be sent to Iraq.

“My reasons were selfish,” he said. Knowing he would be gone for a year, he hoped local Legionnaires would be available if his wife or children needed a hand. As it turned out, they didn’t. They were fine.

But while he was in Iraq, the soldier enjoyed the attention of the Legion post, which joined the mass of donating agencies that flooded members of Maine’s 133rd Engineer Battalion.

His mail-call booty of care packages and letters became the envy of the Mosul base.

That earned O’Connell’s gratitude, enough so that when he returned, he told five members of his squad to join the Legion. He persuaded his brother, George, to join. Then he re-signed his father, Frank O’Connell.

In all, more than a dozen local veterans of the ongoing war have joined the post, one that Stuart believes is more diverse than others.

In all, the post has more than 400 members. Of those, 65 served in World War II, 80 fought in Korea, 168 served in Vietnam, about 30 took part in the first Gulf War, and another two dozen were involved in conflicts in Lebanon, Grenada or Panama.

“Now, we’re growing,” he said.

Local groups haven’t always been so lucky.

In 2002, Lewiston’s United Members Club was forced to close its doors because so many of its people – members of American Legion Post 22, Franco American War Veterans, the Marine Corps League of Central Maine and Les Indiens Snowshoe Club – had simply died off.

It couldn’t pay its bills anymore and closed the 190 Bates St. headquarters.

However, the new vets are giving a boost to groups all over.

Robert Smith, who served with O’Connell in Iraq, now belongs to both the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The former National Guard sergeant said he has been warmly greeted by veterans at halls in Paris and Mechanic Falls.

Soon after he returned from Iraq, he dropped into his hometown hall in Mechanic Falls.

“I think everybody in the place bought me a beer when they learned I’d been in Iraq,” Smith said, joking that he’d better not return to the hall too often.

But there’s far more to membership than drinks.

Maj. Michael Backus, a Wilton guardsman who served in Iraq, joined the VFW shortly after returning home in 2004. He doesn’t spend much time in the local hall, located in Jay. Instead, he maintains his membership as a way of encouraging the work of the group to aid veterans’ causes.

The Legion and the VFW are both powerful lobbies in Washington and around the country.

For O’Connell, though, the benefits are closer to home.

The local post sponsors baseball teams and helps kids with scholarships. And it donates flags like the one he and Stuart raised Thursday at the Auburn entrance the Veterans Memorial Bridge.

“I get a sense of belonging,” O’Connell said.

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