Brett P. Reistad, national commander of The American Legion, held up a coffee cup he received as a gift Saturday, a gift honoring the namesake of the Legion’s Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton Memorial Post 55 in Bel Air.
The cup was covered in images and words of honor for Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton, a Harford County native who earned the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Civil War.
Reistad, along with David Johnson, commander of The American Legion Department of Maryland, and their respective staff members, visited the Bel Air post on North Bond Street for a breakfast gathering.
“We’re here to support our veterans,” Reistad said toward the end of the event, addressing a crowd that included Bel Air town officials and representatives of American Legion Posts throughout Harford County, and even some posts in other counties.
Reistad’s visit was part of a daylong tour of northeastern Maryland that included stops at the Perry Point VA Medical Center in Cecil County and an evening banquet at the Bernard L. Tobin Post 128 in Aberdeen.
“It’s hard to find the words for that — it’s an honor,” Post 55 commander Henry “Hank” Allen said when asked his thoughts on the national commander’s visit.
“This is probably a once-in-a-lifetime event for this post.”
Allen noted the historically black Post 55 is small, with 85 members, and it is one of more than 12,000 American Legion posts around the country. The organization has about 2 million members nationwide , according to The American Legion website.
“The smaller posts are just as important, if not more, than the larger posts because of their connections and service to the community,” Allen said.
Reistad, who lives in Manassas, Virginia, was elected as national commander of The American Legion in August. He served in the Army from 1974 to 1978, has been commander of Legion Post 270 in McLean, Virginia, and was commander of the Department of Virginia in 2005 and 2006, according to a biography of him posted on The American Legion website.
Part of his duties involves traveling the country visiting local Legion posts, noting “that is where the work gets done for our organization.”
He said his hosts at Post 55 had been “very hospitable,” and he praised them for recent growth in membership.
“They seem to be doing great things in the community,” Reistad said. “It’s a shame that I can’t spend more than a couple of hours here.”
He spoke during the program about matters such as the history of The American Legion, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2019, issues that pertain to the national organization as well as diversity within local posts. He touched on the contributions of African-Americans in the military such as the “Harlem Hellfighters” — the nickname for the Army’s 369th Infantry Regiment, a segregated black unit that fought during World War I in the trenches of the Western Front — and the contributions of female service members and veterans.
Post 55 in the past and present
Allen said The American Legion has four tenets — supporting veterans, national security through support of the active-duty military, supporting youth and families, and “Americanism.”
He said Post 55 has initiatives such as scholarships, oratorical programs for youths, and Americanism programs such as Boys State and Girls State, an initiative of the American Legion Auxiliary, that teaches youth about citizenship and how government works.
Post 55 was formed via a temporary charter in September 1931 and received its permanent charter in April 1956, according to past commander Godfrey Clayton.
“I think it was a good thing [for the national commander] to visit one of the smaller posts in The American Legion,” Clayton said.
Post member Walter Smothers, of Street, recalled serving in the Army when then-President Harry Truman ordered the desegregation of the U.S. armed forces in 1948.
Smothers, who is black, said he was stationed in Japan that year. He said desegregation of the military was “something that a whole lot of people had been fighting for [for] a long time.”
Smothers also said he was working at Edgewood Arsenal — now the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground — when he was drafted into the Army, and he returned to work at APG when he left the service. He retired from the Harford County Army post in 1983.
The Bel Air American Legion post was named in November 2017 for Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton, according to Clayton. Hilton was a Harford County native and member of the Union Army’s U.S. Colored Troops. He was wounded in action during the Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights in Virginia in the fall of 1864 and later died from his wounds.
Hilton picked up the flag of his regiment after the designated flag bearer was hit during a charge. He held the flag and continued to charge despite being wounded himself, until he could no longer move forward and a comrade took the flag from him.
Hilton earned the Medal of Honor for his actions, the only person born in Harford County to earn the nation’s highest military honor. A Harford County park in the Gravel Hill area near Havre de Grace — Hilton grew up in Gravel Hill — has been named in the soldier’s honor, as well as the Route 22 overpass crossing I-95 in Aberdeen, in addition to the Bel Air Legion post.
Allen, the post commander, said bearing Hilton’s name and “the heroism of Sgt. Alfred B. Hilton” has helped drive much of the membership growth during the past year. There have been 10 new members, and Post 55 has the second-highest percentage growth of membership in the state.
Post 55 has 115 percent growth so far for the 2019 fiscal year, which ends June 30, as former members come back to the post and new members join. Allen noted there is still time for more growth before the end of the fiscal year.
“We’re still growing,” he said.
Allen said leaders want Post 55 to become more involved in Bel Air community events, such as holiday parades and Memorial Day observances.
He said town government officials have been “instrumental” in working with the post to clear the area in front of the building to construct a monument to Hilton, which includes a flagpole donated by APG Federal Credit Union.
“It’s our honor to be able to step up like that,” said Monica Worrell, director of business development for APGFCU and an attendee at Saturday’s event.
Anita Stewart-Hammerer, commander of Legion Post 22 in Towson, and Angela Phillips, the second vice commander, got photos of Reistad signed by the national commander and posed for a photo with him.
Stewart-Hammerer said her post and Post 55 have collaborated in the past, and she said that “we just, in turn, wanted to support our fellow legionnaires” by coming out to Saturday’s event.
“I think is great that the national commander came out to Post 55, because it gives him an opportunity to see the diversity of the various posts and of the military,” Stewart-Hammerer said. “It also gives him an opportunity to meet the people that have served.”