VFW Auxiliary 2145

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Clarion, PA
VFW Auxiliary 2145

The VFW Auxiliary supports projects that benefit veterans, active duty service members and their families. We spread patriotism in our community.

Address

603 Liberty Street
Clarion, PA
64111

Website

https://www.vfwauxiliary.org/

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About the VFW Auxiliary 2145:

The SPC Ross A. McGinnis Auxiliary is located in Clarion, Pa. Below is the tale of braver, valor and camaraderie illustrating how our post has chosen to honor Ross and his family. SPC Ross A. McGinnis is always in our hearts and throughout the community.

Ross Andrew McGinnis was born June 14, 1987 in Meadville, PA. His family moved to Knox, northeast of Pittsburgh, when he was three. There he attended Clarion County public schools, and was a member of the Boy Scouts as a boy. Growing up he played basketball and soccer through the YMCA, and Little League baseball. Ross was a member of the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Knox, and a 2005 graduate of Keystone Junior-Senior High School.

Ross’s interests included video games and mountain biking. He was also a car enthusiast, and took classes at the Clarion County Career Center in automotive technology. In his youth Ross always kept himself busy.

His mother, Romayne, said Ross wanted to be a Soldier early in life. When asked to draw a picture of what he wanted to be when he grew up, Ross McGinnis, the kindergartner, drew a picture of a Soldier.

On his 17th birthday, June 14, 2004, Ross went to the Army recruiting station and joined through the delayed entry program.

After initial entry training at Fort Benning, Georgia, McGinnis was assigned to 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment in Schweinfurt, Germany. According to fellow Soldiers, he loved Soldiering and took his job seriously, but he also loved to make people laugh. One fellow Soldier commented that every time McGinnis left a room, he left the Soldiers in it laughing.

The unit deployed to Eastern Baghdad in August 2006, where sectarian violence was rampant. Ross was serving as an M2 .50 caliber machine gunner in 1st Platoon, C Company, 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment is support of operations against insurgents in Adhamiyah, Iraq.

According to the official report, on the afternoon of Dec. 4, 2006, McGinnis’ platoon was on mounted patrol in Adhamiyah to restrict enemy movement and quell sectarian violence. During the course of the patrol, an unidentified insurgent positioned on a rooftop nearby threw a fragmentation gr***de into the Humvee. Without hesitation or regard for his own life, McGinnis threw his back over the gr***de, pinning it between his body and the Humvee’s radio mount. McGinnis absorbed all lethal fragments and the concussive effects of the gr***de with his own body. McGinnis, who was a private first class at the time, was posthumously promoted to specialist. Spc. McGinnis’s heroic actions and tragic death are detailed in the battlescape section of this website and in his Medal of Honor Citation.

Thank you always for your service and sacrifice to our great country.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Our membership is growing and we are grateful to currently have 160 annual and lifetime members.

Correspondences may be addressed to:

The Auxiliary President, 603 Liberty Street, Clarion, Pa. 16214

Email: [email protected] Phone: 814.745.2781

The Auxiliary meets the first Monday of each month @ 7 pm at the above address.

Annual dues are $32.00.