Clinton VFW may sell post buildings, lan

One of Clinton’s longtime patriotic bastions, the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4465, will most likely soon be greatly reducing its profile in the city.
Letters have been mailed to the post’s 120-plus members notifying them of a proposal to sell its real estate and personal property, including its headquarters building located east of town on Old Highway 66. A meeting of members will be held Dec. 10 at 7 p.m. to discuss the divestiture of its assets.
“It saddens me, but we have to move on,” Quartermaster Larry Jordan said Tuesday. “Only three to five people are coming to our meetings, and the income from our post canteen and bingo was not offsetting our cost of operations.
“Mr. Evans (John Evans, manager of the canteen and bingo hall and a former post commander) has dug way down into his savings – into the thousands of dollars – to keep the place operational. We are simply having to relocate due to the cost of operating that building.”
Jordan said VFW Post 4465 was organized and chartered Oct. 15, 1945, about two months after Japan’s surrender ended World War II in the Pacific, and five months after victory was declared in Europe, ending the fighting there.
The Dec. 10 meeting will be to give post members a say in the possible disbursement of assets. Jordan said a decision to move forward with the divestiture will require a two-thirds vote of the members attending.
Even if it’s to sell, as the remaining post leaders are recommending, it will not mean the end of the VFW in Clinton. 
“We are simply having to relocate due to the cost of operating that building,” said Jordan. “We will maintain the charter and continue to operate.”
Jordan said Judy Lamborn, who with husband Bruce owns and operates the Route 66 Café at Gary Boulevard and Third Street, “has graciously given us a place to display our flags,” and post meetings will be held there every Thursday at 7 p.m.
Assets owned by the post include roughly four acres of land, said Jordan, “plus the two buildings joined at the hip.” One of those is of course the post’s bar and kitchen, plus the administrative offices, and the other is the bingo hall which formerly hosted games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. They’ve already been stopped.
On the front exterior of the bingo hall are bricks engraved with the names of purchasers who bought them to help raise money to build the bingo hall. One very special section of the memorial wall has bricks engraved with the names of veterans from this area who gave their lives in major wars the United States has been involved in, starting with World War I.
The heading over that part of the wall states, “In Honor of Those Who Gave Their Lives.” It has 124 names on it, including those of Luther B. Hobbs, Victor Ogle and Frank Power, for whom the VFW’s sister organization in Clinton, Post 41 of the American Legion, is named.
By far the most are from World War II, but there’s also a goodly number from WW I and a few from Vietnam and Korea.
Jordan said present leaders hope to dismantle the wall and move it someplace else. In fact, he contacted Lyle Miller, chairman of the Custer County Board of Commissioners, Tuesday to see if there might be a possibility of re-erecting it on the courthouse lawn at Arapaho.
“I will be at the commissioners’ meeting on the 26th, and we will be discussing moving the memorial wall,” Jordan said, “perhaps to a position on the courthouse lawn someplace.”
If it’s nicely done, as he promised it would be, he feels it would be an asset to the county.
“We’re not going to do it haphazardly,” he promised, stating that the commissioners would be invited to the Dec. 10 meeting. “We’re going to take the bricks down one by one. We’re not going to let that memorial wall go.”
Other parts of the wall contain the names of VFW members (there are 276 of those bricks), the Ladies Auxiliary (122), and “Clinton sponsors” (88).
“Corky Heard’s company will be handling the auction,” said Jordan. “He’s got a proposal for us that involves both on-sight and online auctions, and he’ll be there Dec. 10 to present the plan. They will also photograph and catalog everything.”
Jordan said of the slightly over 120 members in the Clinton VFW post, 119 are lifetime members. Unfortunately, a few of them have moved away.
“I got a call today from a member in Nebraska,” he said. “He said in his hometown there, the American Legion and VFW have both sold out. He gave his approval for our disbursement.
“It saddens me, but we have to move on. There are several posts in Oklahoma doing the same thing.”
Another piece of nostalgia, especially for the Army folks, is what Jordan’s interviewer – an Air Force veteran – mistakenly called a “tank.” It sets on the west side of the complex facing the highway.
Asked what would happen to it, Jordan wasn’t sure.
“That ‘tank’ is assigned to us by the Department of Defense,” he said. “I don’t know what their procedure is on it. It’s actually an eight-inch self-propelled howitzer. We had to build the concrete pad to put it on. I don’t know if it can be relocated.”
Jordan said there’s nothing the public can do to save the post here.
“It’s becoming a sad situation,” he said. “There’s nothing the community can do; it’s a private organization. We will maintain the charter and we will continue to operate. We just won’t have the buildings.”
The age of its members is hurting the organization, too.
“John (Evans) and I need to turn over the reins to some of the younger veterans,” said Jordan. “To some of those who served in Afghanistan. They’re about 35 and a little younger. We’re working to get them involved.”
He said both he and Evans are in their 70s.