John Cecil Cox
On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour in 1918, WWI ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.
While hundreds of thousand U.S. Troops were in Europe awaiting transport back home, the first American Legion Caucus was held in Paris, France in March 1919. In November 1919, the American Legion received a Congressional Charter as a Veterans Support Organization and numbered 684,000 members.
Local Posts began springing up throughout the country. In December 1919, Clovis Veterans held a meeting and elected its first officers and applied for a permanent charter. On March 3, 1921 the Clovis American Legion Post received its permanent charter and was assigned Post Number 147.
Since the Post now had a number, they decided to name the Post in honor of John “Cecil” Cox, the first Clovis resident killed in WWI. Cecil Cox was an Infantry Private assigned to Company B, 2nd Engineer Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On June 7, 1918 Private Cox was killed in action at the Battle of Belleau Wood. Private Cox was laid to rest in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, France.
Cecil Cox Post 147, Clovis, Calif.
For the past 100 years, members of Cecil Cox Post 147 have dedicated themselves to supporting our veterans and their families, our children and youth and our community. Most recently our members cooked and served meals for first responders and evacuees of the Creek Fire at evacuation sites in the foothills and have sponsored several blood-drives. All proceeds from our annual Golf Tournament go to benefit our local veterans.
We have been associated and have regularly sponsored the Clovis Rodeo Association and our local rodeo each year. Our association with the Clovis Rodeo goes back the entire 100 years. We man several booths at each year’s rodeo in cooperation with the Clovis Rodeo Association.
We have an active Honor Guard, with over a dozen members making themselves available as the need arises, professionally performing honors at funerals of local veterans who have passed away. Over the past year, we have been the only active American Legion Honor Guard in the local area.
We have active youth programs, sponsoring local high school students in American Legion programs such as our Oratorical competition (students prepare and speak on selected government, constitutional and civic issues). Boys and Girls State programs where high school juniors are selected by their attending school counselors and staff to actively attend and participate in government at state and national levels.
We have an active Americanism program going into schools and educating students and staff on proper flag care, protocols and etiquette.
We actively sponsor and assist veterans families in need of assistance at both of our local military units (Fresno Air and Army National Guard units) by providing needed supplies to their family readiness and chaplain offices.
We make our facility available to our community, providing low cost rental options, to the local community that allows for a safe place to hold any event. Veteran and post member discounts are also available.
We participate in other local events including but not limited to, Clovis Big Hat Days, Clovis Fest, Clovis Night Out and are members of our local Chamber of Commerce and Business Organization of Old Town (B.O.O.T). We are supportive of our local police and fire departments, awarding police officer and firefighter of the year awards each year and offer support to our local C.E.R.T. operation.
We have had 95 commanders over the 100 years of service to our community, including two women (1986-87 and 2001-02). There were 0nly two periods of “no commander” (1938 and then 1942-1944) but still the post remained active.
We have steadily increased our membership over the past five years, going from less than 300 to over 500 members currently. We have been awarded the American Legion Post Excellence Award (103% membership and 90% or better retention) on numerous occasions including the last three consecutive years.
Article submitted by Chris Hoffman, commander, American Legion Cecil Cox Post 147
Author: caLegion Contributor
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