March 4, 2020 - Issue: Vol. 166, No. 43 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 2nd Session
CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL OF THE AMERICAN LEGION POST 181 IN BREA, CALIFORNIA; Congressional Record Vol. 166, No. 43
(Extensions of Remarks - March 04, 2020)
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[Extensions of Remarks] [Pages E255-E256] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] CELEBRATING THE CENTENNIAL OF THE AMERICAN LEGION POST 181 IN BREA, CALIFORNIA ______ HON. GILBERT RAY CISNEROS, JR. of california in the house of representatives Wednesday, March 4, 2020 Mr. CISNEROS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the centennial of one of the finest institutions in the 39th Congressional District. On Monday night, January 5, 1920, a cold wind blew out of the San Gabriel Mountains, through the Brea-Olinda Oil Field, the goat and sheep pastures, and into orange groves that surrounded the tiny hamlet of Brea. With little more than a thousand residents, Brea could hardly host a U.S. Post Office, but it held a small group of proud, determined men. They were American veterans of the Great War, and only 10 months after the founding of the national parent organization, with the ink still wet on national charter, they founded American Legion Post 181 in Brea, California. The founders of Brea Post 181 were men like Ted Craig who returned home to Brea in 1919 and helped secure the charter and property for the new Post only a few months after returning from ``Over There.'' Many had seen things, carried traumas off the battlefield and certainly bore emotional and physical scars of the first fully industrialized conflict. But their commitment to the Legion gave them a new mission, a common purpose and a way to channel the evils of war into a peace and prosperity that was good. The first line of the Legion's mission statement pledges every member to re-dedicate themselves to ``uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States.'' But it requires more. Built into the very fiber of the Legion's national mission is a commitment to programs that build better communities and a better country in five areas: From honoring America's war dead and supporting the rehabilitation of our nations wounded warriors, to supporting a strong national defense, the patriotic education of younger generations and, most broadly, to build support for American ideals and values. And Brea Post 181 has been an exemplary participant in all five areas from its beginning with a city-wide Armistice Day Celebration on November 11, 1920, just ten months and five days after the Post's founding. Carnivals, dances, bingo nights and parades have been an important part of the Post's connection to the community. But the Post's work has also included scholarship funding, the Boy's Nation Program, voter registration, and a long-standing collaboration with the city's patriotic celebrations, especially the annual 4th of July Country Fair. And our Brea Legion Post has always been there in times of crisis. In 1933, Brea Legionnaires reacted heroically to the major earthquake that so heavily impacted Long Beach. The Post hosted displaced families, took care of the injured victims, and even stepped in to direct and coordinate recovery [[Page E256]] resources. World War II may have been 181's finest hour. With the founding generation being too old for direct military service, men like Eugene Streed--a proud Marine who had fought Bolshevism in Vladvostock in 1918-1919--led war drives, supervised civil defense activities and put on remembrances and memorials. In Streed's case, this included handcrafting more than 1000 white crosses to identify veterans' graves. He was also the co-founder of Brea's Memory Garden, where American flags with the names of Brea's lost soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are displayed on Memorial Day. Brea is not such a small town as it was in Eugene Streed's day. One hundred years later, its population, at well over forty thousand, is 40 times the size of a rural village that gave birth to Brea Post 181. Yet, for all the city's growth and for all that the Post has done to underwrite that growth, our local Brea Legion has not always prospered in the same way. Indeed, I would be remiss if I failed to point out the struggles. The demographic shift from the mid-twentieth century, when service was almost universal for physically qualified men, to today's all-volunteer force has dramatically changed the recruiting and financing picture of the Legion. Local membership had declined so precipitously that by 2014, the Post had to sell a property it owned to avoid insolvency. It might have collapsed, and the story might have ended before this centennial celebration. But the warrior spirit has always been fierce among the veterans of Brea, and Post 181 has evolved to thrive in its new demographic environment. The membership has made smart business decisions and even smarter partnership arrangements with other veterans and civic groups like Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5384 and St. Angela Merici Church. The Post has come through its crisis. It is more intergenerational than ever before with former Brea Mayor Carrey Nelson--a retired Navy Master Chief who served in both the Second World and Korean Wars--still an active contributing member alongside current Brea Mayor Pro Tem and Brea Post 181 Commander Steven Vargas, who is also a Chief Petty Officer in the Naval Reserves. I hope that other Legion Posts are beginning to thrive and reinvent themselves to meet a rapidly changing country that, however different, still needs a strong American Legion. As a member of the neighboring Legion Post 277 in Placentia, as the son of a Vietnam combat veteran and grandson of two World War II combat veterans, but most of all, as a member of the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committees, I congratulate and commend the Legionaries of Brea Post 181 and wish them another century of excellence. ____________________