American Legion commander makes Valley visit

PALMER — Fang Wong is a busy, busy man.

As commander of the American Legion — national commander, that is, overseeing the whole shebang — the goal for his one-year term is to visit each legion department.

That’s one for each state, plus four more encompassing legion operations in places like Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Europe and Mexico. This week he’s in Alaska, but just for the weekend. Alaska’s statewide convention is this week in Palmer. The site of the convention rotates annually, landing in the Valley only once a decade.

Wong said the American Legion has plenty of challenges. Currently, the organization is deeply involved with discussions over the military and veterans affairs budget in Washington, he said.

“We don’t know how (the Department of Defense) is going to adapt to it,” Wong said of the defense budget. Of the Veterans Administration, “We’re constantly worried about how to care for the returning warriors.”

It’s an interesting time for the Legion, he said.

On one hand, like a lot of veterans’ groups and service organizations, the ranks of the Legion is aging steadily and younger veterans aren’t joining. But the legion could be a great resource for them, helping connect veterans returning from overseas wars with services they need, Wong said.

“I encourage our members to go out and seek out returned warriors, just to see how they are doing,” he said.

Once they get to know each other, the Legion member can start talking about what kind of services he can help the veteran find. That could be as easy as being there to listen to the returning warrior. Legion members, after all, know pretty well what these warriors went through.

Wong noted that one of the major injuries coming out of the current conflicts is post-traumatic stress disorder.

“When we send people to war, we train them in a certain way, but when they come back, we need to deactivate, to defuse what’s been put inside of them,” he said.

A lot of Legion members have been through that themselves and can help point the way.

Another thing that could help — a strong economy. Wong said things like PTSD can fester when a veteran is left alone to dwell on the traumatic things they witnessed.

“If people jump right in and start working, it can take away some of the time that they have to reflect back on some of the negative parts (of their service),” he said.

A New York City native, Wong served in the Army from 1969 to 1989. In that time he was stationed in Korea, Germany and Vietnam, as well as in the states.

He was last in Alaska when campaigning for his current job, a role he seems to have enjoyed now that he’s months away from being relieved at the end of August.

He said the position has allowed him to visit troops overseas, including serving Thanksgiving dinner to soldiers in Korea.

He said he likes visiting posts that don’t get that kind of visit often. Some, he said, won’t see a national commander in a generation. People get excited when he shows up, and that gives him pride. But he’s not there to boost his ego. He wants to hear their concerns.

“We’re exchanging ideas, listening to local problems,” he said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.