At the American Legion Post Fugle-Hummer Post 65, the key word is “family.” Whether you are a veteran, a Son, a Rider, a member of the Women’s Auxiliary, it doesn’t matter. “We help each other,” explains Karen Neary, a member of the Women’s Auxiliary at the post.
The Metuchen post is named after two U.S. Army soldiers — Edward Oscar Fugle and Frank Hummer — both wounded at Battle St. Mihiel in France during World War I on Sept. 19, 1918. They both died from wounds — one on the battlefield and one at the first aid hospital, according to history on the Legion website.
The post received its temporary charter on Aug. 13, 1919 and became a permanent charter on Oct. 1, 1920. Both certificates are proudly hung on the walls of the post.
At one point membership was upwards of 600. It had its own marching band that proudly marched in the borough’s annual Memorial Day Parades.
“It’s about helping the community, the state, and the nation,” said Walter Zjawin, American Legion Post Fugle-Hummer 65 Commander. “Every meeting we say these words. It’s in the preamble of our constitution.”
Today, Commander Walter Zjawin leads the storied post. He has been a member for 45 years. He served 23 years as vice commander and has been commander since 2009.
If you ask Zjawin, he had no goal to hold an office.
“The positions needed to be filled,” he simply says.
Zjawin has extensive knowledge of the post’s history, and he’s put together thick blue binders of photos, newspaper clippings, and papers, chronicling its stories. The post’s historical timeline is also online at centennial.legion.org, thanks to Zjawin.
Born in Newark in 1950, Zjawin and his family moved to Bayonne shortly after.
“I grew up in Bayonne and graduated from Bayonne High School,” Zjawin said. “My goal was to become an auto mechanic. I went into the service (Army). And because of my technical skills I was a helicopter repairman for the Chinook helicopters.”
His military service took him to several places including Korea where he met his wife, Chong. They married in March 1972 and the couple moved to Metuchen in June 1974. They raised two sons here.
Zjawin’s oldest son followed in his military footsteps. He served as a U.S. Marine Corps officer, now retired, and his youngest son works in environmental remediation.
After his service, Zjawin went to work in construction, the railroad and then the U.S. Postal Service. He continued to also serve in the Army reserves with the 78th Division until January 1992.
On a mailing route in Bayonne, he met and had many conversations with a World War II veteran, who asked him to join the Legion post 165 in Bayonne. It was the 1970s and at the time the Legion was raising funds for POW/MIA (Prisoners of War and Missing in Action) bumper stickers.
“At the time we did not have a POW/MIA flag,” he explained.
Zjawin ended up joining a Legion post closer to home. For a long time, the Metuchen post was on Lake Avenue. Due to development of a parking garage, housing, and a town plaza, the post relocated to 17 Calvin Place. A grand reopening was held in October 2015.
The walls inside the bar area are busy, not only with the history but with the many causes the Legion serves — flyers detailing the year-round food pantry donations, veteran supplies for Veterans Haven North in Glen Gardner, Menlo Park Veterans Memorial Home in Edison, and the New Jersey Reentry Coalition in Carteret. Legion Post 65 also sponsors local Boy Scout troops and are in the process of sponsoring a Girl Scout troop.
One of the four pillars on which The American Legion was founded after World War I was that of supporting children and youth throughout the country.
Since its organization, the Legion’s state department has stayed true to that commitment with a variety of programs:
American Legion Baseball has been providing opportunities for summer baseball for nearly 100 years.
For 30 years, the department has also participated in the American Legion High School Oratorical Scholarship Program, “A Constitutional Speech Contest.” The department’s safety committee conducts a yearly safety essay and poster contest for middle school students with disabilities.
As part of the department’s Americanism Award program, a coloring contest is held each year for fourth and fifth graders. Posts distribute coloring sheets, and choose an entry to be judged at the county, and then department levels.
The American Legion Jersey Boys State has a strong tradition of education, patriotism, and excellence in the development of tomorrow’s leaders. Boys State is a participatory program in which students become part of the operation of a re-created local, county, and state government. It’s another national program in which the New Jersey department has taken part since the 1940s. The weeklong session of American Legion Jersey Boys State is held beginning each Father’s Day at Rider University in Lawrenceville. Over the years, Post 65 has sponsored a number of students from local area high schools. This year, they have five students from Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen.
This year the Women’s Auxiliary is sponsoring a student for American Legion Auxiliary Jersey Girls State. Similar to Boys State, it is held from June 21 to June 25 at Georgian Court University.
Katy Marshall recently moved back from Los Angeles and now leads the Women’s Auxiliary. She grew up in Metuchen.
“My mom (Susan) was a member years ago when she was mayor in town,” Marshall explained.
Marshall’s grandfather John Dalton served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her brother Sean served in the U.S. Navy and Sam served in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“We are really ramping up our membership,” Marshall said, which includes approximately 40 members. “We have some new members, but also, we have a lot of older members who were inactive, who are active now. They are coming back out to support the efforts.”
This year the Auxiliary is excited to have a junior member.
The Women’s Auxiliary is planning a spring open house to let the community know about all the community events they offer from Toys for Tots and Christmas Angels during the holidays to school supply donations, which was provided to students at Edgar Middle School this year. That’s in addition to the year-round Poppy Program fundraiser — in which red crepe poppies are distributed for donations that benefit disabled and hospitalized veterans — they run.
“We are a very tight-knit organization,” Marshall said. “We are a family and we support each other 100 percent in all of our efforts.
“Pretty much anything that needs to get done, we are involved with. We are very hands-on as an organization with the rest of the post.”
At the annual car show, the Auxiliary members are selling the food and running around with tickets. At a recent event at Menlo Park Veterans Home, members — including their junior member who is 11 — were helping to serve and talk to the residents.
Inside the post is a large photo of Army Air Force Staff Sgt. Michael Uhrin, a constant reminder of a long-lost hero. The World War II airman’s remains were returned to Metuchen and he was laid to rest on Memorial Day in 2023 with pomp and circumstance. He is now buried at Hillside Cemetery on Lincoln Avenue.
He was declared missing in October 1943 after his plane was shot down by enemy fighters in Germany, according to reports. His remains were successfully identified by researchers with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency in 2022.
And stories like Uhrin’s are why Zjawin does what he does. He wants to “help keep history alive and keep the organization going.”
“It’s about helping the community, the state, and the nation,” he said. “Every meeting we say these words. It’s in the preamble of our constitution.”
And that is “To inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state, and nation.”
Women’s Auxiliary members on why they serve
Karen Neary: Veterans always have a soft spot in my heart. My dad, Robert Neary, a World War II veteran, is my hero and will always be. I understood at a young age the sacrifice that veterans made. I tried to instill that into my students as well. (Neary is a retired middle school teacher.) We owe all veterans gratitude. We need to respect and appreciate them so this was my small way of honoring my father of who he was and what he did and carrying on the tradition of service in my way.
Katy Marshall: Just the way I was raised. You respect the military. You serve your military because they have done so much for you.
Mary Ellen Demary: To show your gratitude for what they’ve done for us. Her husband, Brian, served in the U.S. Army in the Gulf War and Desert Storm.
Tina Thompson: Looking for a way to volunteer. I always respected our military and feel that they deserve the very best when home and thank them for their service. It’s a small part of what we can do for them. Her late husband Glenn served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam and her father Anthony served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II.
