In the early 1980s, a desire, perhaps influenced by the Bi-Centennial of the American Revolution, grew on the part of Saugerties Legionnaires to preserve and display in the Post home the artifacts that illustrated their community's rich heritage of service to the Nation in the Armed Forces. The effort to create a Veterans History Museum was spearheaded by Legionnaire Sam Shapiro and others. At tha
t time many of our WWI veterans were still with us and they and their families donated helmets, uniforms, captured enemy equipment, service bibles and prayer books and many other articles. These combined with donations of items from other wartime eras formed the core of the museum collection. In 1982, the newly formed Ulster County Chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America donated one of the first displays from that war; a framed Viet Cong flag that had been captured by US troops. Over time the collection grew but eventually enthusiasm waned, and the museum fell into a state of neglect; frequently being used to store assorted items that had nothing to do with our military history. When Joe Font became Post Commander he set forth with a will to bring the museum up to where it needed to be. Frank Pierce and Bill Payne and his son Dan Payne as well as Alan Greczynski to restore the museum. A great deal of work was done and with support from Post members and the community the museum was renewed. During that time the Saugerties Library transferred their Civil War collection to the Legion and Mike Karashay built a beautiful large display case for one of those items. Alan discovered a collection of World War I reminiscences of Saugerties men who had served and with the help of County Historian Carolyn Knaust Elia, copies were sent to the state archives. Alan collected the letters in a volume; A Small Town's Contribution to the Great War for which he and the Post received an achievement award from the Legion Department of New York. Research lead to the placement in Donlon Park of plaques bearing the names of all the Saugerties men who had died in wartime service from the Civil War to Vietnam. The Post Museum also participated in erecting a marker in Malden, where the British 1777 naval assault that burned Kingston ended when the enemy ships turned back down the Hudson River. Alan also discovered in the attic a large collection of WWII unit patches and over the years the Girl Scouts helped to sew them onto framed canvases built by Past Commander Charles Marullo for display. The Post Historian and Alan interviewed and recorded the wartime memories of more than sixty veterans, from World War II to the present, for the Library of Congress. Two personal Japanese flags were identified, photo-reproduced in full size and the originals returned to the families in Japan. This was done with the help of Professor Kiyoshi Yamauchi of Nimi College near Yokohama and in turn lead to his bringing groups of his students to visit our museum and out town each year and to share lunch with our WWII vets. An adjacent room was renovated by members of the Post and the Sons of the American Legion and added to the museum and more recently the former 'office' has also been upgraded and added through the efforts of Bob Chappelle and a number of volunteers. In recent years, Mr. Lombardo directed his shop class at Saugerties High School to build a display case for our post-911 wartime collection from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Also, Boys Scouts have helped us digitize our inventory and these are but two examples of the ongoing positive collaboration among our Post Museum and the youth of our community as well the Library and the Saugerties Historical Society under the leadership of Marge Block and other institutions in our village and town. In collaboration with Mr. Scott Wickham, teacher at Saugerties High School, we interviewed WWII/Battle of the Bulge veteran Cliff Snyder at the SHS video class studio. The video will be provided to the museum in the town of Bihain, Belgium which Cliff helped to liberate and defend. Mr. Wickham will continue to upgrade and modernize our collection of video interviews and we expect to resume interviewing veterans soon on their new equipment. We have provided displays and presentations, as well hosting musical performances of Civil War music by The Veterans in a New Field, for schools, businesses, other museums, and church and civic organizations, particularly during the Civil War sesquicentennial; 2011-2015. During that time RJ Butler and Bill Payne donated markers for Donlon Park honoring the service of Saugerties citizens in the Army, Navy and Marine Corps of the Civil War as well as planting weeping cherry trees as living memorials. As we observe the Centennial of World War I and the 100th Anniversary of the founding our Post, we continued as a vital and vibrant repository for the symbols of the heroism and sacrifice of the women and men of Saugerties who have served our country in the Armed Forces. Recently, Mike Karashay built yet another display case for us and Post members & other community volunteers devoted their time to creating the room that houses our WWI and Post Centennial memorabilia. In January Ulster County Corrections under Vince Decker will return to Clean, prime & paint the walls & ceiling of the 2nd floor entrance area & continue in the main room of the museum. During this same time a storage/ work & media room was finished off with cabinets & counter tops in a small room next to the WW1/ Post Centennial room by Ray Andreassen, Pete Gage & Vince Bouno. This is only the beginning; it is our plan to continue as far as the funding & our volunteers allow us to go. We learned on April 5th 2018 that Lamouree-Hackett American Legion Post 72 has been awarded a grant from the U.S. World War One Centennial Commission and Pritzker Military Museum & Library. We were chosen as one of a hundred cities nationwide in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the end of WWI. Although this grant was intended as a restoration grant for WWI memorials, Lisa Polay, drawing heavily on Alan Greczynski and Karlynn Knaust Elia’s A Small Town’s Contribution to the Great War and historical information provided by Michael Sullivan Smith, crafted a persuasive and compelling proposal for funding of what will be the WW1 memorial for our veterans: the Centennial Room, designated specifically to house our WWI objects. With the unrelenting determination of Bob Chappelle, who has been working tirelessly for the past two years to renovate the exhibition rooms. With extensive help from Ray Andreassean, Mike Karashay and Vince Buono, Bill Payne’s intricate knowledge of the collection, and Lisa’s guidance of collections care and object display, we looked forward to the opening on traditional Memorial Day, May 30th. A book will be published next year by the Commission to highlight the winning projects. We are honored to receive this prestigious award and it has bolstered a renewed sense of spirit and pride in the project. It would not have been possible though, without the tremendous contributions by the citizens and community members of Saugerties who have paved the way for this moment to come to fruition. For more information about the 100 Cities/100 Memorials, to view an official project timeline, visit http://bit.ly/2iqqDR6. To learn more about the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, visit http://www.pritzkermilitary.org or on Facebook. Information about the challenge can also be found on The American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars websites. Since the completion of the WW1/ Centennial room & that followed by the completion of the painting by the County Corrections, upgrading of the general lighting to LED & the replacement of 8 exterior windows in the other 3 rooms of the museum has been completed. To be continued……………..
