Post 1760 Calendar

Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1760 was chartered in Mesa, Arizona on November 19, 1929. Then known as Geronimo Post 1760 (under a different namesake) the newly formed charter elected their first post commander to be, James E. Coberly. The initial years for the Post progress was slow and had low interest.

A few years later in 1936 another well organized effort was made for the post, this time under the commandership of Merlin Shumway. It was under Commander Shumway’s administration that the namesake for Post 1760 was changed to Dode Morris in honor of Joseph Smith Morris, who was better known locally as “Dode” in the area (pronounced ‘doh-dih’). At the time it was believed Dode was the first citizen of Mesa killed in action during World War I, thus renaming Post 1760 with him as the namesake. This was in fact false as another Mesa veteran, Marion E. Rogers was killed in action 17 days before. Regardless of who was killed in action first, both those men and 4 other Mesa veterans made the supreme sacrifice for our country in the Great War.

Through the beginning years Post 1760 held meetings in schools, churches, homes of members or any place where the members could congregate. In 1946, Post 1760 leased the basement of the Passey-Gurtler building on W. Main. This was the first regular meeting place since the founding in 1929.

Then in 1948, Post 1760 bought the property on the northeast corner of 1st Avenue and S. Macdonald. In 1951 construction was started on a hall adjacent to the main building. And officially the Post paid off their mortgage and celebrated with a “Mortgage Burning Ceremony” on March 17, 1956. Post 1760 resides in the very same building you see and visit today as a result of many years of work by the entire membership of Post 1760.

Moving forward, Post 1760 has remained active long enough to now be one of the five oldest VFW Posts in the state of Arizona.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, which is annually on December 7, commemorates the attack on Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii, during World War II. Many American service men and women lost their lives or were injured on December 7, 1941. National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day is also referred to as Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day or Pearl Harbor Day.

On Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, the American Army and Navy base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy. The attack came as a surprise to the American Army and Navy and lead to great losses of life and equipment. More than 2000 American citizens were killed and more than 1000 were injured. The Americans also lost a large proportion of their battle ships and nearly 200 aircraft that were stationed in the Pacific region. More than 60 Japanese servicemen were killed, injured or captured. The Japanese Navy also lost five midget submarines and 29 aircraft.

The Japanese military had hoped that the attack on Pearl Harbor would prevent the United States of America from increasing her influence in the Pacific. However, the events in Pearl Harbor actually led to the escalation of World War II. The day after the attack, the United States declared war on Japan and so entered World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt in a speech to Congress stated that the bombing of Pearl Harbor was “a date which will live in infamy”. Shortly afterwards, Germany also declared war on the United States. In the months that followed the attack, the slogan “Remember Pearl Harbor” swept the United States and radio stations repeatedly played a song of the same name.

In 1991, which marked the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Congress established the Pearl Harbor Commemorative Medal. This is also known as the Pearl Harbor Survivor’s Medal and can be awarded to any veteran of the United States military who were present in or around Pearl Harbor during the attack by the Japanese military. The medal can be awarded to civilians, who were killed or injured in the attack.

(2018). Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in the United States. Retrieved from https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/us/pearl-harbor-remembrance-day?starty=1900.

VFW Post’s namesake Joseph Dode Smith Morris birthday