Alaska’s newest American Legion post plans more support, services for local veterans and their families
It’s Veterans Day, but Salcha’s American Legion post won’t be conducting its own service -– at least, not this year. That’s because it’s Alaska’s newest Legion post, established just over a year ago.
“ It took us about 18 months to get everything together in regards to all the documents that are required,” says Post 99 Commander Amanda Jones. “There's a lot of red tape you have to cut through.”
Jones said Monday that Post 99 members will, however, be participating in observances held around the Fairbanks area today by other veterans service organizations. She says Post 99 members plan to work more with those organizations in the years ahead, starting with Memorial Day services next spring.
“Every Memorial Day, all the veteran service organizations get together and we go to each of the cemeteries in the Interior,” she said. “We want to physically be there and help clean the graves and put the flags out on the Memorial Day and Veterans Day.”
Jones says within a couple of years, Post 99 members hope to have their own Veterans Day and Memorial Day observances in Salcha. Until then, they’ll continue meeting in the Salcha Senior Center.
She says many of the new post’s events will be held in a facility built on land near the Salcha Fairgrounds they hope to lease from Fairbanks North Star Borough. They also plan to hold services at the state’s not-yet-built veterans cemetery that’ll be located a few miles down the Richardson Highway from the post’s new home.
“ We do plan on having services at the cemetery site to help support veterans families,” she said. That includes a color guard for events, including veterans’ funerals at the new cemetery.
“We're hoping to provide a safe haven for families to come and hang out with us while they remember their loved one.”
Post 99 members have set ambitious goal, but Jones says they’re optimistic. They handily cleared the first hurdle to getting an American Legion charter by recruiting more than twice the required number of veterans to become American Legion Post 99 members.
“ Finding 15 veterans in the Salcha community that were interested in being a part of this organization was not a challenge,” she said. “We started with 33 members. We are now over 100 members strong, which is a really incredible feat.”
Alaska has by far the highest number of veterans per capita than any other state. Both Jones and her husband, Kristopher, each served 21 years in the Air Force, and she retired after serving her last tour at Eielson Air Force Base.
The Interior’s veteran population is the main reason the federal Veterans Affairs Department granted $16.7 million dollars to build the first phase of the Interior Alaska Veterans Cemetery at a 257-acre site off Johnson Road.
The state Office of Veterans Affairs plans to complete work on the project by late 2027. Agency officials hope to begin interring veterans there by the spring of 2028.
