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By Michael P. Mauer

Unlike many veterans service organizations that dot towns and cities throughout the Commonwealth, West Mifflin VFW Post 914 Intrepid doesn’t operate a club or a bar. It is also one of the few VFW posts that doesn’t carry a list of social members. Each proud veteran in its ranks has been decorated with a campaign or occupational medal, and meets the requirements of membership into the VFW.

Past Commander Richard L. Fleischer, left, and Quartermaster Gary Ruston

Without a bar to run, VFW Post 914’s officers don’t spend time worrying about staff payroll, liquor and food costs, cable television bills and video games. Each month, they and about 25 to 30 of the post’s more active members meet at the Thompson Run Athletic Club on Ball Avenue in West Mifflin.

Fortunately for VFW Post 914, none of the accomplishments needed to make All State Post involve running a club or a bar. All the activities required what VFW Post 914 focuses on - to support the VFW’s mission to help veterans and their families.

To be selected as an All State Post, the VFW 914 members had to accomplish a long list of service-oriented goals outlined by the Commonwealth’s VFW headquarters. To do these tasks isn’t easy. Last year, less than 15% of Pennsylvania’s 460 VFW Posts were feted during the Department of PA VFW’s state convention for earning the title of All-State Posts.

Examples of these good works include supporting student scholarship programs, visiting and engaging with hospitalized veterans, and participating in fund raising to assist the VFW’s network of service officers.

According to Past Commander Richard L. Fleischer, VFW Post 914 can also list active community involvement as one of the keys to its success.

“When we turn out to sell Buddy Poppies, everybody seems to remember seeing us from somewhere else before,” said the Vietnam veteran. “They see the work we do and are eager to contribute because they know every dime is being well spent.”

Fleischer can proudly relate the post’s accomplishments and activities. Over the past two decades, the post has regularly participated in and helped organize ceremonies in the Borough of West Mifflin for Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. Additionally, its honor guard and rifle team have flown the colors and fired salutes at the annual openings of youth league sporting events.

Other community groups that the post has supported over the years include Scouting, the West Mifflin Area Senior High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, and the Greater Pittsburgh Soapbox Derby. In addition to the VFW Voice of Democracy and Patriot’s Pen programs, the post has also funded and awarded its own Walt Kuczma Scholarship Program.

Being an active post has its benefits. With its visibility in the community and focus on service, finding new members hasn’t been a problem for VFW Post 914 Intrepid. From its initial chartered membership of 37 veterans in 1991, the post’s roster has swollen to nearly three times that amount. The post has active members who served more than 70 years ago in World War II, to those who have recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Past Commander Fleischer is quick to point out that the post’s success and achievement of All State status is a group accomplishment.

“Comrade Ruston and I will be recognized with special hats and lapel pins for All State, but as I told the post members at the last meeting, when we put those hats on, we’ll be putting them on for everybody in the post,” said Fleisher.

In the photo above right:
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 914 Intrepid West Mifflin Past Commander Richard L. Fleischer, left, and Quartermaster Gary Ruston prepare for a monthly meeting. The West Mifflin veterans service organization was recently awarded the title of All State Post. -Photo by Michael P. Mauer

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