Dieterich Legion post closing after over a century of service

Sep. 17—DIETERICH — It's the end of an era for Dieterich American Legion Post 628 as it prepares to join a number of Legion posts that have recently been forced to close due to declining membership.

Chartered in 1920, Post 628 is nearly as old as the American Legion itself, which was founded in 1919.

Members of Post 628 held one of their last meetings Wednesday at the Blacktop in Dieterich, where they discussed the final steps they have been taking in recent months to disband.

The post's commander since 2006, Donald Dorn, said the post's low numbers can be attributed to the aging of its membership.

"Well, a lot of it is just members passing away," Dorn said.

Post 628 Adjutant Bob Probst believes the decrease in the Post's membership numbers is also largely because the number of Americans actively serving in the military has dropped significantly in recent decades.

"There's not been any big wars like there was before to bring in a lot of members," Probst said. "There's just not as many people going into the armed services anymore as what they used to."

"The younger generation doesn't come," Dieterich Legion Post 628 Financial Secretary Graham Buhler said.

Most current members of Post 628 are Vietnam War-era veterans, but there are also members who served in World War II, the Korean War and more recent conflicts. The youngest member of the post is 37 years old while the oldest is 96 years old.

Though the post has less than 50 members now, Probst said its membership numbers hovered around 250 in the early 1950s, and according to post documents, its membership peaked in 1950 with 290 members.

According to American Legion membership reports from the past commander and current adjutant of District 23 of the Illinois Department of the American Legion Philip Mette, there were 136 members in the post in 1993, almost 100 members more than the 48 members the post was recorded to have had this summer.

Many members of the post have been Legion members for decades, signing up soon after they completed their military service.

Some members, like past commander and current member Dave Behrns, have memories of Post 628 from before they joined the Legion themselves because a lot of members had fathers or uncles who were members as well.

"Dad was commander when they burned the mortgage," Behrns said of his father, Wayne Behrns, who was a member in the early 1970s, when the post burned their mortgage for the bar they purchased, The Blacktop.

Several members said it was their fathers who convinced them to join the Legion.

"My dad was a member of the Newton Legion," Dorn said. "In fact, my dad took me up and signed me up when I came home from Vietnam."

Throughout the years, Post 628 has worked tirelessly not to just honor and remember veterans but to also serve the Dieterich community.

In addition to presenting the colors at military funerals and local celebrations like the village's Fourth of July event, Post 628 has done a great deal for Dieterich's schools.

"Up till about three years ago, we sponsored a ball team here at the school," Dorn said.

The post has also sponsored Dieterich's skeet shooting team and presented an award every year to a senior graduate from Dieterich High School who they think best demonstrates courage, leadership, service, scholarship and honor.

Post 628 will also likely be missed by the community when the holidays come because that's when members would usually give candy to children throughout the village.

"For years and years, we gave treats to the kids at Christmas," Behrns said. "That was a big thing when I was little."

"They have Santa Claus go around on the firetruck all over town," Dorn said. "And everybody that wants him to stop at their house just puts their porch lights on."

In addition to this treasured holiday tradition, Behrns, like other members, said one of the things he's going to miss the most about Post 628 is the "fraternization with your comrades."

"Actually, all the members here are just about like a family, and that will be missed," Dorn said. "My fondest memory is just how the people treated us on the Fourth of July when we marched in the parade, which I'd done for several years."

Probst said he's going to miss the post's meetings as well as the "well-attended" stag parties he and his fellow members use to host. According to Probst, Post 628 used to host about six of these parties a year, and he noted that each party took place over the course of about three days.

"The first night, you'd cut up the hogs," Probst said. "Then, the second night, you cooked it and had the stag. And then the third night, you had to clean up."

"At one time, we'd have maybe 140, 150 people or more come to a stag," Dorn added.

Not only were these parties a chance for the community and the post to get together for a good time, it also helped raise the funds necessary for the post to keep its doors open.

"It helped pay our mortgage off, and that's also how we were able to give money back to the community too," Dorn said.

After it officially disbands, Probst said most current members of Post 628 will begin transferring to different Legion Posts in the area.

"Some of them will be going to Newton, some of them to Teutopolis, some of them to Effingham," Probst said.

Behrns said Legion Posts closing their doors has become more common in recent years.

"This is happening all over the state," Behrns said. "It's not just the Dieterich post. We barely had a minimum here tonight to be recognized as having a meeting."

Probst said one of the primary reasons why members have decided to discontinue Post 628 is its inability to continue presenting the colors at local events because there aren't enough available members who are physically able to do so anymore.

"So we decided if we couldn't even do that, maybe we didn't need to continue the post," Probst said. "That had a lot to do with the decision to close the post."

Another contributing factor is a lack of members interested in taking over leadership roles.

"We have a nomination of officers in May, and it was a couple of months before that that we discussed it that me and Bob wanted to step down, but nobody wanted to move up," Dorn said

The process of discontinuing the post officially began this spring when leaders sent a letter to members notifying them of the post's decision.

As Post 628 prepares to hold what could be its last meeting this October, Dorn is somewhat concerned that the post will no longer be there to present the colors in Dieterich.

"They'll have to see if they can get a color guard from another post," Dorn said. "We hate to do this, but what can we do?"

Nick Taylor can be reached at nick.taylor@effinghamdailynews.com or by phone at 618-510-9226 or 217-347-7151 ext. 300132.