Chapin American Legion Post 193

Post History

Chapin American Legion Post 193 History

Information contained in this document is derived from interviews with original / Charter members of Chapin American Legion Post 193 on 22 February 2022

Past Commander Walt Richardson, Past Commander Jerry Hamil, Past Commander Cal Coy, Past Commander Cletus Smith, members, Keith Ostrander and Bill Lindsay

Brief History

Buddy Rowland (deceased) and several other veterans from the Chapin area met at a local gas station PDQ in Chapin and started the movement to organize an American Legion Post in Chapin South Carolina. 

 After this initial meeting on November 19, 1998 Buddy and the others gathered together a total of 16 potential Post members and met with the then District Commander Frank Whittle, and Department of South Carolina Adjutant Jim Hawk to begin the process of starting an American Legion Post in Chapin.

Buddy Rowland and the 16 members who met with District Commander Whittle and Adjutant Hawk set out to recruit members to join the American legion and Form a Post in Chapin. Chapin American Legion Post 193 received its permanent Charter on 27 February 2000 with seventy veterans listed as Charter members.

Chapin Post 193 originally held Post meetings at the local Irmo-Chapin recreation center Crooked Creek Park and in October of 2011 moved to the old Chapin fire station located in downtown Chapin. The Town of Chapin has been gracious in providing Post 193 with a place to call Home at a very reasonable rate and the relationship between Post 193 and the Town could not be better.

In 2020 Chapin Post 193 purchased  six acres of land in Chapin and since then have added a very nice picnic shelter and cleared an area for parking. Chapin Post 193 is continuing to improve the property and raise funds to build our future Post Home. The future home of Post 193 will be larger and more useful facility within the Chapin town limits. The new building will greatly improve our ability to support veterans and the Chapin community.

Affiliated Organizations

A Women's Auxiliary of American Legion Post ____ was formed on _______. The Legion has every reason to be proud of it's Auxiliary.  Auxiliary members are always anxious and willing to co-operate in every Legion activity.

A Sons of the Legion for American Legion Post ____ was formed on _______. The Legion has every reason to be proud of it's Sons of Legion unit, which gained statewide recognition because of it's programs of service.

Patriotic Days

MEMORIAL DAY has always been an outstanding occasion in this community. In addition to memorial events throughout the _____ community, the  goal of every Veteran to it's last man is to keep MEMORIAL DAY sacred to the memory of our war dead of all of the wars of the country; and all graves are decorated on this National Holiday.

ARMISTICE DAY, now called VETERANS' DAY, originally marked the end of fighting in World War I. It is an important holiday on the calendar of Legionnaires everywhere and in the hearts of all Veterans. It has been in ____.  Annually the Post sponsored the Armistice Day Parade. An important tradition was established when the Post led in the memorial exercises at 11 o'clock on the morning of November 11, marking the exact hour of the cessation of hostility on the war fronts.

Registration Of Graves

Since it's inception American Legion Post ___ has been a leader in this community in the area of graves registration; which has been incorporated by all the American Legion Posts in ___ County. Grave Registration enables all interested parties to locate the site of the grave of each Veteran. American Legion Post ___ acquired a burial lot in ______ Cemetery and this has been marked by the erection of a massive monument marking it as the burial lot for servicemen without kin. Each year, active members place a flag on each Veteran's grave.

Scholarships and Community Projects

American LegionPost --- sponsors various scholarships for the further education of our children. We also sponsor and financially assist many worthy community projects and programs initiated by the National American Legion.

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