Historian: Legion history is being made right now

From 1919 to the present, American Legion history is being made, and as post historians, we need to record it or it is lost forever.

The photo history book is gathering photos monthly and putting the photos in chronicle order in a decorative photobook. The narrative history book is specific information entered from information found with the help of your adjutant’s minutes and prior history books, which just need to be updated. The National History Department has guidelines to put both history books together. I am here to help also and just a phone call or email away ([email protected]).

I am a 100 percent disabled veteran, and have been a historian for the last 10 years. I do not drive at night, nor can I attend every event. (It is not required because as the historian, we are only one person.) What I do have is great American Legion family members who send me photos, event information and use the media webpages, newspapers and Facebook, so that I can do this position that I love so much.

I am very proud to say that this year my narrative history book for the Department of Minnesota took second place at the National Convention in Tampa this year! It was the first time I ever did a digital narrative history book.

Does your post have a post historian? I hope the answer is yes!

Please contact me by email at [email protected]. Mark on your calendar that during the July 2026 at the Department of Minnesota Convention in Willmar, there will be a Historian Book Contest and the winners from both the narrative and the scrapbook entries will be sent to the National Historian Department for judging at the National Convention in Louisville, Ky., in 2026.

I would like to meet current or future post historians. Stop by and join me at poolside for a few minutes at the Fall Conference, 6-8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 24, at the Kelly Inn (conference hotel) in St. Cloud. I would like to learn what you would like to see us do as post historians and whether you’re interested in becoming a historian for your post or district.

I have a personal mission, and it works perfectly as a post historian. I document one local cemetery at a time of all the veterans who came before us and their military information, then put it in a binder and present it to the post. These veterans will always be honored and the generations that follow.

While doing this research you may come across veteran memorials without their headstones, our service officers can order them and we can hold a memorial service. If the veteran has outlived his or her family, we will be this veteran’s family. It is an opportunity to take note of any headstones that might need repaired or cleaned.

As department, district or post historians, we are the frontline documenting American Legion history in the making.

Sandy Gessler of Austin Spam Post 570 is the historian for The American Legion Department of Minnesota.