Member Recognition Program for American Legion Post 219
WWII – In recognition of the accomplishment of members no longer with us, we have created a program to honor them and ensure they are not forgotten.
Many of our WWII members are leaving us each day and these members of the “Greatest Generation” must not be forgotten.
In 2012 – Stephen Pond, son of Maj. George Pond, a World War II B-17 pilot who was shot down over Berlin, had commissioned the Post to establish this award in honor of his father.
An awards plaque was hand covered by Post Historian Frank Dorchak, which contains the names of WWII combat veterans.
A bronze plaque describing Major Pond’s shoot-down and POW information also appears.
WWII Veteran Statistics
Below is a snippet from the National WWII Museum’s website.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/wwii-veteran-statistics
Every day, memories of World War II—its sights and sounds, its terrors and triumphs—disappear. Yielding to the inalterable process of aging, the men and women who fought and won the great conflict are now in their late 80s and 90s. They are dying quickly—according to US Department of Veterans Affairs statistics, 496,777 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II are alive in 2018.
