July 14, 2008

RE:   Commander J.J. Van Gasse

Dear Members of Post 46,

As the Judge Advocate of Post 46, I have been given the very sad duty to write this letter to formally inform all members of American Legion Post 46 of the recent death of our Commander, J.J. Van Gasse, on Tuesday, July 1, 2008.  As many of you know, Commander Van Gasse served honorably and diligently as the Commander of Post 46 since 2000.  Private family services for Commander Van Gasse have been held and his interment was in Norway Township Cemetery in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, a few miles due west of Escanaba.  For those of you who might wish to express condolences to the family of Commander Van Gasse, you may do so at http://www.minerortmanfuneralhome.com/.

As you are probably aware, Commander Van Gasse took great pride in the creation and support of a Post 46 scholarship fund for student veterans and ROTC cadets at the University of Michigan.  Kathryn Van Gasse informed me that Commander Van Gasse had said that he would like any contributions in his memory to go to the scholarship fund.  Post 46 has made a commitment at its last meeting to make a contribution.  If any member would also like to make such a donation to the scholarship fund in honor of Commander Van Gasse, please make your donation payable to American Legion Post 46 and send it to: PO Box 2192, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106.  Please note on your payment that it is designated for the "Scholarship Fund".

It is difficult to list in this brief letter all of the activities which Post 46 accomplished under the guidance and leadership of Commander Van Gasse.  Some of them were our very traditional services to veterans.  Others were the direct result of Commander Van Gasse's inspiration to expand the activities of Post 46 so that the American Legion would become more involved with and have relevance to our local community and its younger veterans, as follows:

• Visiting veterans in nursing homes and hospitals. These visits often include bingo, entertainment and small gifts.
• Establishing a scholarship fund for ROTC cadets and student veterans.
• Participating in a Wall of Heroes project in the ROTC building.
• Supporting and sponsoring veterans who are faced with eviction from their homes
• Assisting in the creation of Student Veterans of America, a student veterans group on college campuses.
• Creating and maintaining a website - americanlegionannarbor.org - in order to maintain communications with post members, veterans on active duty, other veterans' organizations and the community of veterans in general.
• Inviting all members to the Annual Post 46 Christmas party at which recognition and awards are given to community leaders.
• Supporting the creation of a program for veterans which will provide legal information regarding the rights and privileges which are available to them from federal, state and local resources.
• Rejuvenating and sponsoring a local American Legion baseball team.
• Assembling and preparing gift boxes for mailing overseas to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
• Selling of poppies to commemorate Memorial Day to generate proceeds for our hospitalized veterans.
• Attending monthly luncheon meetings at which speakers and various subjects are often featured.

In order to treasure and preserve our memory of Commander Van Gasse and his devotion to Post 46, I urge that all of us, the surviving members, now step up to the plate and become active in the operations and leadership of Post 46.  As our older veterans relinquish their leadership roles in Post 46 and their active involvement in its daily affairs, it is now time for Vietnam and younger veterans to assume these duties so that we can continue the outstanding record of accomplishment which has been established.

Most Vietnam veterans are now at an age where we have raised our families and launched our children into the world, established our careers, achieved most of our goals and some of our dreams, and should still have some energy left to make the commitment to continue the various services to veterans and to the community of which Commander Van Gasse was so justifiably proud.

Post 46 will have its regular post meeting on September 8, 2008, at 7:000 p.m. at Weber's Inn.  At this meeting, we will, among other things, elect our next Commander for Post 46.  This letter serves as an invitation to each and every one of you to attend this meeting and to participate in the activities of Post 46 to any extent that you are able to do so.  If you know of any other veterans who would like to join American Legion Post 46, please also bring them along to this meeting and we will welcome them to our membership.  Please put this date and time on your calendar!

If any of you have any questions or concerns regarding Post 46, our tributes to Commander Van Gasse or any other issues noted in this letter, please call my office and I will do my very best to answer them.  Further, I do not have a record of email addresses for most of you.  If you have an email address, please send it to my office ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) so that I can enter it into our records.

Very truly yours,