Allen Kruse has hardly settled after one month as the new Koochiching County Veterans Service Officer, when he was installed Tuesday as commander of the International Falls, William Robideau Post 66.
Kruse hopes to “breathe new life” into the inactive organization that was once commanded by his grandfather, Lester Kruse, a former P.T. boat captain who passed away in May.
“He asked me if I would become active in the legion and to try and get it going again,” said Kruse. “When I became the veterans service officer, it seemed an appropriate time to get it going.”
Kruse steps in for former commander Brian Briggs, who held the position for nearly 10 years as he continues to serve as the highest ranking enlisted member of the Minnesota Air National Guard.
“He was willing to let me take over,” said Kruse of Briggs. “He is retiring soon and plans to become more active with the organization.”
Minnesota American Legion Eighth District Commander Bob King came from Orr to conduct the ceremony and to discuss the future of the Falls chapter with Kruse.
“This is good and I am so proud,” said King. “Like I told them at the state legion headquarters, my goal is to get the Falls chapter up and running. It is sad that in a city of nearly 7,000 people that this chapter was not operating.”
King said that his Orr post made its membership quota of more than 100 members, but that as one of the oldest Korean War veterans to become a commander, he is concerned that the legion needs to get younger veterans to take over the organization. Without them, he added, the legion chapters will eventually disappear.
Kruse said there are currently 76 paying members in the Falls. He will make recruiting new and inactive membership a priority. The legion is open to any wartime veteran with an honorable service discharge. He is looking to attract the career servicemen and women of his era that will be retiring soon, and the returning war era veterans as he meets with them through his veterans service job.
“I will work as hard as I can to get young veterans in their organization,” King said.
The two discussed the possibility of the Falls chapter reestablishing the pull-tab booths that it operated decades ago. King said the additional revenue would create a budget that would allow the organization to do more and to grow.
Kruse is also a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars — Peter Graham Post 2948 in International Falls, and is talking with Commander Terry Randolph, about using its building for monthly legion meetings.
Chrystal Clance, Falls Legion Post adjutant, is a 30-year member who said current members have 50 been in the organization 50 years or more. They are what remains of a post-WWII membership of around 400 in the 1950s.
The Falls American Legion lost its historical records and photos to an off-site storage fire, said Clance, who still has a copy of the original charter and constitution. She noted that the Falls Legion Auxiliary chapter also stayed inactive, but not defunct, at the insistence of past commander Virginia Randolph.
Clance also noted that the importance of the organization was also fading as honor guard team members report they are finding it more difficult to get time off of work to conduct veteran burial ceremonies. She noted that aging veterans that are less active are now deciding not to update annual dues as the cost of living increases with fixed incomes.
Kruse was born and raised in the Falls, and served two years in the U.S. Army National Guard in administration. He then served seven years of active duty in the U.S. Navy as a yeomen. He is also a new member of the Falls VFW.
The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help, war-time veterans organization. It continues today with a Women's Auxiliary as a community-service organization of nearly three million members at 15,000 posts in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, and the Philippines.
To learn more about the Falls American Legion Post 66 call Allen Kruse at 283-1179 and visit www.mnlegion.org.
