Dode Morris VFW Post 1760
Dode Morris VFW Post 1760 85th Anniversary of service to veterans, veterans' families and the Mesa Community

Mesa Dode Morris VFW Post 1760 Celebrates

their 85th Anniversary serving Veterans

On Wednesday, November 19th the VFW Post 1760 had a small gathering to commemorate and celebrate the 85th continued years of service to veterans in the Mesa community.

The following speech was presented by our Senior Vice Commander Jesse Chitwood on behalf of our Commander as he was unable to break away from another engagement:

“On this day in 1929, 17 veterans who served honorably were authorized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States to organize, and were constituted a Post in the city of Mesa, Arizona.

The Mesa VFW was first recognized as Geronimo Post 1760 under our first Post Commander James E. Coberly. Seven years later in 1936, under the commandership of Merlin Shumway the namesake for the Mesa VFW was changed to Dode Morris in honor of Mesa’s own Joseph Smith Morris. Corporal Morris was in the United States Army who served in Battery C, 340th Field Aritilery, 89th Division in World War I. In an unfortunate circumstance Dode was killed in action in France 3 weeks before Armistice day. To this day our Post still proudly carries his name.

Currently, VFW Post 1760 is one of the five oldest active Posts in Arizona. For the past 85 years the Mesa VFW has since and still continues to serve with the assistance of the Ladies Auxiliary and Men’s Auxiliary our veterans, their families, and the community of Mesa. We give thanks to those VFW members before us in helping veterans, and many more thanks to our members doing the same today. As our Post progresses forward for many more years to come we continue to keep in mind the VFW slogan, “Honor the Dead by Helping the Living”. On behalf of our Commander please join us in celebrating this great accomplishment for our Post and our members with cake and beverage on a job well done!

The evening concluded with Red Velvet cake and champagne for the 30+ in attendance.

(*gallery of photos to be added w/this website migration – 2017)