GWOT veteran starts first Legion Cruisers in Minnesota

To the last man

ST. CLOUD — There is a new movement taking shape within The American Legion called the American Legion Cruisers.

Fourth District Commander Jon Haworth, an Army infantry veteran, is hoping to make it a reality in Minnesota. He said it is like the American Legion Riders, but with classic cars instead of motorcycles.

The Department of North Carolina has Legion Cruisers. Its members show up at national conventions to pass out brochures and share the idea. They want it to spread nationwide.

“There are a lot of veterans who have classic cars or modified cars,” Haworth said. “It sparks a conversation about memories of times when they were younger and in the service.”

Haworth, 42, is a 2001 graduate of Apple Valley High School. He didn’t join the military right out of school. He joined at age 27, during the recession.

In 2009, he got demoted at work and had to change his schedule and get a second job. His goal was to be a personal trainer. His brother was in the Army, so he talked to an Army recruiter. The recruiter informed him that, if he was in school, he wouldn’t be deployed.

He went infantry. In 2010, there he was, at Fort Benning, Ga., going through infantry training. He became a grenadier and was part of the 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry Regiment out of Rochester. It received orders to deploy overseas with 309th Infantry Regiment from the East Coast.

Haworth mentioned what his recruiter told him.

“Rochester laughed and said, ‘Go pack your s***,’” he said.

The Minnesota soldiers first went to Camp Ripley, where Hayworth met Jesse Kalinowski on the firing line. He was five years older and a friendship formed. “Both of us were old E-3s, basically,” Haworth said.

The unit went to Camp Shelby, Miss., where Haworth contracted MRSA, a staph bacteria resistant to many antibiotics. Doctors lanced it and covered the area with gauze. He had to stay behind a month while the 309th left. He didn’t get to Kuwait until Oct. 31.

Kalinowski went to Camp Virginia. Haworth was at Camp Buehring, where he started training for route security missions, rollover training and a lot of shooting.

That was difficult because Camp Shelby sent his M4 Carbine with M203 grenade launcher back to Minnesota because, after that medical stint, the Camp Shelby armorer thought he had been sent home.

That meant Camp Buehring replaced his normal weapon with “a dirty-ass M4 that jammed after two or three shots. It had a 203 also. I was going into a combat zone with a weapon that doesn’t even work.”

Using standard-issue rifle-cleaning tools and dental picks, he eventually got it clean enough to function.

Haworth was with a platoon that went ahead of convoys and scouted the roadways. They used thermal optics to see temperature outlines. They also used devices that jam signals — the kind that could set off an IED. They drove the same 125-mile stretch over and over.

They would drive out of Buehring, get to Rally Point 3 Alpha Sierra, clear the overpass and check for bombs. Once the convoy came, they halted traffic so the convoy could exit the highway onto another road.

They ran 5-kilometer runs daily, except when they did ruck marches instead. They were at the gym a lot.

“I got in the best shape of my life ever,” Haworth said. “I became really good friends with these people and am still good friends with them to this day. They would take a bullet for you and patch you up, and you would do the same for them.”

Haworth said he was fortunate there was only one time an IED blew up on their assigned route.

“I had just got off mission, so one of the other teams went out and pulled security. The EOD went out there and loaded the truck up. People recall the smell of burning flesh of the guy who blew up. They had to pick up pieces like sticks in the yard and throw them in the back of a truck. It was a reminder that we were still in the danger zone.”

Battalion Commander Col. Eric Kerska joined them for the final security mission, closing the road to Iraq at K Crossing.

“I literally said, ‘Looks like I am the last man out of Iraq,’ and he says, ‘No, son, I was.’”

At a get-together in Cannon Falls, he reconnected with Kerska and mentioned the gate closing, and they debated — in that friendly way soldiers do — which of the two actually was the last man out of Iraq.

To keep enemies guessing, the unit left Kuwait about two weeks beforehand, in mid-December 2011.

However, Haworth remained in Kuwait to lead training: shooting, Expert Infantryman Badge and P.T. They found time to play “Call of Duty” and other video games a lot.

Finally, in April 2012, he came home. He did the 30-60-90 reintegration and learned he would receive federal veteran benefits. The soldiers returned to drilling once a month and two weeks in the summer. They went to Fort McCoy, Wis., and performed maneuvers, battle drills, reactions to ambushes, things like that.

If they weren’t at McCoy, they were at Ripley, where the rain seemed to like the Rochester unit.

“The weather seemed to suck all the time,” Haworth said.  “One time, looking at the radar, the entire state was clear except for one big red dot over Camp Ripley.”

His unit would perform field-training exercises. They rucked everywhere. They would load LMTV trucks and drive 45 minutes at 25 mph. As a grenadier, he oversaw a lot of qualifying for firing grenades.

Meanwhile, for a civilian job, he worked at HOM Furniture, mainly delivering furniture, and at a gym. Between the two jobs, it was pretty much 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. for four years.

Haworth was promoted to E-4 specialist in 2013. In 2014, they went on a ruck run in Rochester on a day with a windchill of 41 below zero.

“We had a hotshot cadet who wanted to show all the higher-ups how good of a leader he was by being a bad leader,” Haworth said.

“I always was good at ruck marching. I ended up nearly falling out and had to strip gear and give my ruck to my team leader,” he said. “I ended up getting asthma from the incident.”

That hurt his ability to pass P.T. tests. He couldn’t go on a training mission to Egypt because of his lungs. He was put on truck-driving duty, so he looked at becoming an 88M, the MOS for truck operator. He even re-upped after his sixth year for a seventh so he could change Army jobs and transfer units.

However, he got medboarded. Haworth received a medical discharge in 2017.

Haworth is fourth-generation military. His father was drafted in 1968, then went to Officer Candidate School and became a green beret. He retired in the mid-1990s as a colonel and was a brigade commander for the Minnesota National Guard.

When Haworth graduated from basic training, his father came in full greens, bird on his shield, Special Forces tab, all that stuff.

“My captains and even drill instructors were like, ‘It would have been nice to know your father was a colonel.’ I said, ‘I was just wanting you to judge me for me.’”

He has three siblings. His older sister, Christine, was in the National Guard for six years. His older brother, Rod Jr., served for 30 years.

Haworth got his real estate license in 2018 and started helping family and friends with real estate needs, learning the VA loan and other benefits veterans have when owning a home.

“I’ve helped them quite a few times, and their family members. I’d say about 50 to 60 percent of my business is helping vets,” he said. “I also get them hooked up with a county veteran service officer if they aren’t already so they can get VA disability benefits they’ve earned.”

He lives in Minneapolis and is with Keller Williams Realty NW in Maple Grove. He belongs to Arcade-Phalen American Legion Post 577 in St. Paul and is in his second year as commander of the 4th District.

How did he get interested in the Legion?

In 2022, he was lying in a bed in the ICU of the Minneapolis VA. He had collapsed upon entry to the building. A nurse helped him up. Doctors found he had clots in his entire body. This was related to a prior surgery where the VA thought he had a cancer and gave him a therapy that caused clots. It turned out he didn’t have the cancer and shouldn’t be on that therapy.

Long story short, Amy Larsen of Lonsdale Post 586 (who presently is the 3rd District commander) stopped by to visit wearing her Legion cap. She was the ex-girlfriend of a friend of his.

At the time, Larsen was on the Department Media & Communications Committee and suggested Haworth be part of their committee because he was good with social media.

He then met another M&C Committee member, who introduced him to then-Chairman Teresa Ash. They hit it off, and soon he joined the Legion and their committee.

Haworth called his National Guard friends and got them involved. Ash decided to flip the 4th District to have younger veterans, and Haworth became commander in summer 2023.

He said he enjoys going to Legion rallies, conventions, conferences. The national conventions in New Orleans and Tampa were a blast.

“It’s not only sitting in the trainings, but it’s the camaraderie with the friends. No one judges you. Everyone accepts you. It’s really great,” Haworth said.

He’s written resolutions, one that was sent to the national convention, regarding VA loans. Two people who live together and share finances, and one is a veteran, but aren’t married can’t use their combined income for the VA loan.

“It’s against the law in real estate to discriminate against marital status or sexual orientation. It should be the same for VA loans, too,” he said.

Haworth said he has seen many veterans who can’t buy starter homes because they are at the boyfriend-girlfriend stage, and not married.

He has a girlfriend, Gina, and they have been together for two years. No pets. No children. He likes cars, and he started up the 4th District Legion Cruisers with about four or five members who consistently show up. They meet at Post 577, 1129 Arcade St., during warm months.

The North Carolina Legion Cruisers are strictly classic cars. The 4th District Legion Cruisers are for any custom car or a vehicle 20 years and older. That means even a 1993 Dodge Caravan owner can join.

Haworth has a 2012 Subaru WRX with 500 hp.

Anyone interested in launching a Cruisers chapter at their post can contact him by email at [email protected].

The next 4th District Legion Cruisers car show at Post 577 is coming in the spring. A date hasn’t been set.