Membership in veterans service organizations has been steadily declining, with an estimated drop of 700,000 members nationally in the last decade or so.
But Oneida Legion Post 727 in rural Knox County is going strong, thanks to younger generations joining to keep up traditions — and a commitment to community service.
“I've always been a firm believer that one hand washes the other. So if you stay involved in your community, your community will be involved in you," said Sharon Crawford, an Army veteran and Commander of the Oneida Legion. “And that has really paid off.”
When Crawford joined the Legion around 15 years ago, she was the first woman to do so. Now there are several other women and a total of around 50 members. Plus, the post still has a Legion Hall in the town of fewer than 800 residents.
In addition to fish fries twice a year, they’ve started doing flag retirement ceremonies, and teaching local kids how to fold them. They do toy drives for local children, and they have recruited younger members to keep traditions alive.
Crawford said the oldest members of the Oneida Legion are now in their mid-80s.
“We don't have any World War One or World War Two veterans left. They're primarily up to the Vietnam and Korean era,” Crawford said.
Memorial Day traditions
Phil Olson served in the Air Force in the early 1960s. He’s been a member of the Oneida Legion for more than 50 years.
In that time, Olson, now 82, has rarely missed a Memorial Day morning traveling to five cemeteries in rural Knox County with fellow veterans in uniform.
First they go to Rio Cemetery, then on to Bruner and Ontario cemeteries out in the country, and then to Oneida and Wataga.
Olson said the Oneida Legion’s Memorial Day services have been held every year dating back to when World War I vets started the local tradition.
“It means honor the people who are there. My uncle is in the Ontario Cemetery. He was shot down a couple times over Germany with the Air Force. He’s the one that told me to go into the Air Force,” Olson said.
He said the Memorial Day services have not changed much over the years. They always enjoy breakfast together first. They always go to the five cemeteries, where flags have been placed at all veterans’ graves — and locals have picked flowers from their own gardens to lay at the graves as well.
The ceremonies always include a rifle salute, and they always include the playing of “Taps.”
Crawford said with younger veterans joining, they’re keeping those Memorial Day traditions going.
“As a veteran myself, we were always taught to never leave a comrade behind. And so to commemorate Memorial Day for those people that have passed on before us is a great honor on my part. And I believe it's the same way with the guys that are in the Legion with me,” she said.
Generational traditions
Other Oneida Legion traditions continue, but in a slightly different way.
Sara Karbeling lives in Iowa City. But for the past decade, she’s traveled to the Ontario Cemetery every Memorial Day, with her bugle.
Karbeling’s grandfather, Eugene Holt, was an Army veteran and a former Commander of the Oneida Legion. Holt used to play the bugle at the Memorial Day service, but as he got older, that got harder — to the point that it was a recording playing.
“I heard a story on the radio about buglers volunteering to blow taps,” Karbeling said. “So I called grandpa and I was like, can I do that?”
Her family has a reunion every Memorial Day, and attending the service at Ontario Cemetery is both a family tradition and one to honor veterans.
“For me, it really is honoring my grandfather, his family before him, the veterans, and also honoring our family,” Karbeling said. “Our farm celebrated 150 years last year, so our family has been here for a long, long time.”
Ontario farmer Rollie Moore hasn’t missed too many Memorial Day services, either.
He lives in the farmhouse his ancestors built in the 1850s. If not for a giant machine shed, he could see from his house the Ontario Cemetery, where three generations of his family are buried.
“My first recollections are probably at five or six years old. And holding my ears from the rifle shots and then running down the hill to pick up empty cartridges,” he said.
Moore said it’s reassuring that in the rural community, feelings of patriotism and respect for veterans have carried on, generation after generation.
Technically, Moore is the contact person to make sure the Memorial Day service happens in the Ontario Cemetery every year.
But he said it’s not much of a job.
“Oh gosh, it's just on autopilot. The Legion just shows up. It just happens. It’s been that way for years and years. The folks in the area just know that Memorial Day morning, they're gonna be there,” Moore said.
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