American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 celebrates 100 years in the community
A handful of veterans and their families comprised American Legion Newport Harbor Post 291 when it started in April 1924. The fledgling group first met in a building located in a parking lot members affectionately called the “Hut.”
In 1953, the city offered the organization a lease on a location on the Balboa Peninsula, abutting Newport Harbor, and that is where it has remained ever since.
As Newport Harbor Post 291 prepares to celebrate its centennial this summer, it boasts a membership of nearly 8,000 across all its entities, which include an auxiliary and Sons of the American Legion.
Like other American Legion chapters across the country, Post 291 focuses on helping active military personnel, veterans and their families. The post’s auxiliary group provides care packages to deployed personnel, and its Sons of the American Legion holds fundraising drives. Post Cmdr. Evin Planto, who came into his position in 2021, said the post currently helps more than 20 people a month through its veteran emergency assistance fund.
Planto estimated Post 291 made more than $500,000 in donations and support last year to individuals and veterans organizations.
Auxiliary president Mary Beth Martin, who joined Post 291 about three years ago, said her father served in the military and her uncle was once a prisoner of war. She said she wanted to give back to a population that has been ignored and views the nonprofit as a support group for many former soldiers.
“They meet people who have similar backgrounds and experiences. You probably know that the rate for [veteran] suicide is very high, and so [American Legion] does a lot for that. We, as the auxiliary, try to support homeless veterans through the [Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center] in Long Beach. We try to adopt families during certain times of the year, so that we can help in that way. But the post is here for veterans, and we are here to support them,” Martin said. “Anything we can help with, we do.”
Planto said many of the post’s members had traumatic experiences while serving in the armed forces. He said he never personally was “kicking down doors, but I know some people who were in Vietnam. I know a guy who was a tunnel rat and a couple of people who did long-range reconnaissance, where they dropped you in a jungle and you ran around for 10 days. Those kinds of things stick with you.”
Stanley Behrens, a 102-year-old veteran of the U.S. Navy, was talking with other members of Post 291 on Thursday when he quipped that he joined it about 30 years ago because he wanted a place to bring his sailboat in. But he went on to explain the real reason was that because there were members of the American Legion that came to help him when he was recovering from surgery.
“I wanted to pay back the Legion,” Behrens said, adding that he’s now working on a legacy fund to help it aid other veterans and their families.
David Heinle, who serves as a financial officer for the post, said he came from a multigenerational military family and served in the army himself when he turned 18. It took him about 15 years after leaving the service before he joined the American Legion because he missed hanging out with other veterans.
Sons of the American Legion Cmdr. Tim Sullivan said the legion’s priority was to help veterans cope with returning to civilian life.
“We always say they’re home physically, but they’re not home mentally. So, we try to help them come all the way home,” he said.
But despite the efforts the organization makes, including providing a place for veterans to gather, Planto and Sullivan both said the American Legion has an image issue. Sullivan said people knew it better for partying than nonprofit work.
Planto said the chapter is striving toward overcoming that misconception so more people will volunteer to assist veterans.
Most of the local post’s members range from 67 to 72 years old. Planto said he hopes the legion will be able to make renovations to the existing facility to make it more accessible and to attract a younger membership as its current members age out.
While no plans exist to mark the actual date of its anniversary in April, Planto said the organization is planning to stretch its annual Fourth of July pancake breakfast into a full weekend celebration. Planto said he’s hopeful that, in addition to the breakfast, American Legion Post 291 will host an open community event that weekend.
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