Alaska post’s home is gone, but not its traditions or spirit.
Soon after 1 a.m. on Sept. 10, 2023 – a day after the anniversary of its initial charter in 1919 – the post home of Joseph T. Craig American Legion Post 3 in Ketchikan, Alaska, burned. The building was in the middle of downtown Ketchikan, an appropriate place for a heart of the community. Putting out the fire took hours.
Post Commander Hunter Davis says the post and its leadership have been a substantial presence in their community from the beginning: “Many of the names of the charter members can still be seen around Ketchikan.” It has taken part in Fourth of July parades since 1920, and put crosses and flags on veterans’ graves on Memorial Day for decades. The post home “had been used as a community meeting hall, hosting dances, Bingo, dinners, suppers, political forums and debate, weather shelter, and so much more. It was the polling location for Ketchikan Precinct 1 for many years.” In recent years, the Flag Day program has expanded to include other local organizations. And Davis says all these events have continued over the last year.
The building was a total loss, and between fire, smoke and water, so were many of their historical documents and memorabilia – “but not everything,” Davis continues. The post’s Facebook page provides a real-time account of the lost and found: a fireman took down the American flag outside the building, and the police department provided them a new one. The fire department removed the carved Legion emblem over the front door.
Davis, a 23-year Legionnaire who has also served as Department of Alaska commander, describes his experience of that night and the next day as “Stunned disbelief. Anger. Grief. Gratitude. Then daylight on Day 1 without the building magnified those emotions.” As Post 3 had rallied for the town so often over the decades, the town now rallied around the post. Staff members from the local museum helped preserve everything possible from water damage. Residents and neighbors offered their support. And the local newspaper ran a number of articles in the next months about the history of its post and all it has contributed to the community. “The reaction was and continues to be incredibly humbling for me,” Davis says. “It was very obvious that Ketchikan trusted the Legion … to be a center of the community; to be the representatives of all the veterans who make Alaska their home; and to hold firm to the ideals that make up the United States.”
The original charter survived the fire, but at the department convention in April the post, Auxiliary unit, Sons squadron and Riders chapter all got replacement charters. A year after that night, the post’s former location of 88 years is “a broken lot full of rubble and gravel,” Davis says. A new mortgage is not a possibility for them, so plans are well underway for a new construction – contractors, blueprints and a post Building Committee are standing by. The only impediment is money; “fundraising is now a way of life for us,” he comments. The Ketchikan Pioneer Home Resident Council set up a donation fund at a local bank almost immediately after the fire.
The first anniversary of the loss was marked by the post’s Legion Family on Sept. 10, at the still-standing flagpole on the site of the former building. Two days later, the post’s Facebook page was updated with a new statement: “We thank all attendees of the event at the post on Tuesday, where we reflected on the loss, still profoundly felt after a year. Our gratitude also extends to the first responders, Legion Family members and community members who offered vital assistance that morning and in the days since, enabling us to pursue our mission of supporting veterans and their families.”
“The overall feeling was one of expectant optimism,” Davis concludes. “We are going to get this done.”
- FODPAL