American Legion Middletown Post 75

09/03/2026

08/23/2026

Blue Star Mothers - Ashtabula County - Oh57
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Just a few reminders of OLD GLORY 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲
Do you have our flag displayed at your home?
Proudly waving in the breeze ❤️🇺🇲 See less

08/18/2026

At Arlington National Cemetery, a Tomb Guard can lose the right to wear his badge for life over conduct that has nothing to do with how he walks the mat. The schedule that earns that badge in the first place runs twenty-four hours on duty, twenty-four hours off, twenty-four hours on again, then ninety-six hours to recover, and none of that recovery time is actually off.
A Sentinel spends roughly eight hours of it preparing a single uniform for the next shift, on top of physical training, Tomb-specific drilling, and a haircut before ever returning to the mat. The math only works because three separate Reliefs rotate the duty in sequence, each built around a Relief Commander, an Assistant Relief Commander, and a bench of Sentinels still working toward full certification.
The walk itself is exact for a reason. Twenty-one steps down the mat, a twenty-one-second pause facing the Tomb, then twenty-one steps back, a number chosen to echo the twenty-one-gun salute, the highest honor the military renders to anyone.
Earning the right to do that walk unsupervised takes months. The Tomb Guard Identification Badge is only awarded after nine months of service at the Tomb, and it can still be revoked for conduct that discredits the post, active duty or not, for the rest of that person's life.
Keep this one on hand for the next time "24 on, 24 off" sounds like an easy shift. Would you trade a haircut and eight hours of uniform prep for a single day off?

Sources:
- Arlington National Cemetery, https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/.../Tomb.../Getting-Here
- U.S. Department of Defense, https://www.defense.gov/.../tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier/
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, https://department.va.gov/.../2022-Veterans-Day-Teachers...
- Society of the Honor Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, https://tombguard.org/society/faq/
AI Disclaimer: This image was generated with AI for creative and artistic purposes. See less

Currently, the Tomb Guards work on a three Relief (team) rotation - 24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on, 24 hours off, 24 hours on, 96 hours off. However, over the years it has been different. The time off isn't exactly free time. It takes the average Sentinel 8 hours to prep their uniform for th...

08/18/2026

When I served in the United States Army, my life was in the hands of black, brown, red, yellow and white toned people. We were friends, we were combatants and we had each others back when the hammer slammed the anvil. We trained, we sweated and we bled together. We came together from all parts of the country; we came together from all religions. We were a society unto ourselves.
We worked as a team, a well oiled machine. We fought for our brothers and sisters through thick and thin. We protected each other, that was what we did.
The only color we saw was
OD Green.
Would my fellow Military Veterans be willing to copy and repost this simple reminder? Just two. Any two. Say done

08/17/2026

On December 7, 1941, in the same attack that sank the USS Arizona, a second battleship went down at Pearl Harbor, the USS Utah, and fifty-four of her crew are still aboard her today.
The Utah was moored on the far side of Ford Island that morning, away from Battleship Row, when Japanese torpedo planes struck her. She rolled onto her port side and sank within minutes, taking dozens of men down with her before they ever had a chance to reach open water.
Fifty-eight of her crew were killed that morning. Four bodies were recovered in the weeks that followed. The other fifty-four were never brought out, the same choice the Navy made for the men still aboard the Arizona, treating both wrecks as war graves rather than recovery sites.
Both ships were named National Historic Landmarks on the same day in 1989, decades after that morning. The Arizona gets the crowds. The Utah gets a much smaller memorial and far fewer visitors, even though the same generation of men never came home from either one.
Share this so the fifty-four men still aboard the USS Utah are remembered by name, not just as a footnote to the ship next to them.
How many of us even know a second battleship went down that morning at all?

Sources:
- National Park Service, USS Utah Memorial: https://www.nps.gov/places/uss-utah-memorial.htm
- Wikipedia, USS Utah (BB-31): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Utah_(BB-31)
- USS Utah Association, USS Utah Casualties: https://www.ussutah1941.org/uss-utah-casualties.html
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Names and photos of USS Utah crew killed in action during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. William D. Arbuckle, Joseph Barta, Rudolph P. Bielka, Virgil C. Bigham, John E. Black, John T. Blackburn, Pallas F. Brown, William F. Brunner, Feliciano Bugarin, George J. Chestnutt Jr....

08/03/2026

Way to go Phil Cacciola!

I presented Connecticut’s Third Congressional District Veteran Impact Award to Mr. Phil Cacciola.

After 30 years in the US Army Reserves, Phil devoted his life to serving our community & fellow veterans. Thank you for your dedicated selfless service to others.

07/31/2026