American Legion Post 156 was established in early 1943 based on the idea of Legionnaires Charles F. Brenner and Martin Gilbert. They secured 15 prospective members in order to apply for a Post Charter. A temporary charter was granted in May 1943 under the name of Grantley Post, and the first meeting was held on November 23, 1943. The name was based on the location of the Post's home, Edmonson Avenue and Grantley Street, in Baltimore. State Adjutant Jack Tribby, Vice Commander Ralph Dolby and Department Service Officer James Onion attended this meeting and assisted the initial membership in the formation of the Post and election of the first officers.

Grantley Post grew rapidly during its early years. By the end of the first year the Post had 59 members. This quickly grew to 290 members by the end of 1947, then hovered around 260 through the next decade. During this time, Grantley Post was very active in the community, especially the Edmonson Village area of Baltimore. They sponsored a championship bowling team, a boy's baseball team, Junior Drum and Bugle Corps and oratorical candidates. In 1952, they made a deposit on land on Lohr Lane in Baltimore. A year later, the construction of a post home was begun where many of the members gave their time and skill to complete this building. With the post home, Grantley Post was able to hold meetings, social events, and rent the hall for weddings and other banquets.

Besides having a post home to use for raising revenue, Commander Burns would organize a Sports Rally. Local radio personalities would participate including a sports commentator, Bob Silbersash, a former Grantley baseball player who signed an Oriole minor league contract. The third annual sports rally in 1958 featured Baltimore Colts quarterback, Jonny Unitas.

However, things began to decline for the Post in the early 60's. The post home was broken into numerous times resulting in the loss of money, liquor, foods and property damage. Rentals also declined as the surrounding area was also declining. There were several meetings discussing the idea to sell the building and initial attempts failed to find a buyer. Membership was also declining and shrank to under 150. In 1964, the first post home finally sold for $15,000 which was just enough to pay off the mortgage and pay all the other debts the Post had accumulated with very little left over. Membership dropped to under 100 by this time.

Once the building sold, Grantley Post met at various establishments around the area including Buell's Restaurant in Howard County. Later that year, the Department of Maryland granted Grantley Post 156 permission to transfer from Baltimore District to Northern Central District (NCD). In 1968, a special initiation of new members was held at the Yingling-Ridgely VFW Post in Ellicott City, where they now currently meet every third Thursday of the month (except July and December).

In 1973, a motion was made to change the Post's name from Grantley Post 156 to the Gary W. Hanna Memorial Post 156. Some members questioned this as Gary's father, a state legislator prior to this time, didn't have a favorable record concerning veteran's legislation so it was decided to honor two Vietnam soldiers and include Thomas Moore's name. By April 14^th 1974, Post 156 assumed its current name, Adams, Hanna, Moore Memorial Post 156 based on a membership vote to honor three Howard County servicemen who died within weeks of each other during the Tet Offensive of 1968 in South Vietnam. Private First Class Stephen Hamilton Adams, USMC, was killed in action on March 16, 1968; Warrant Officer Gary Williams Hanna, a helicopter pilot with the 9^th Cavalry Division was shot down in Thua Thien Province on January 31, 1968; Specialist 4^th Class Thomas Woodrow Moore, a helicopter mechanic with the 150^th Transport Squadron was fatally injured during a mortar attack on Vinh Long Airfield, January 31, 1968.

During the 1970's and 1980's, Post 156 still had to scrounge around to find regular meeting places. Some local businesses were accommodating but they weren't always attentive to the Post's needs as they still had customers and clients they needed to keep happy. Also members had to get used to constantly changing meeting venues, a very unpleasant task. Finally on June 13^th, 1989, Adams, Hanna, Moore Memorial Post 156 began holding regular monthly meetings in the basement of the Yingling-Ridgely VFW Post in Ellicott City.

During the 90's membership continued to drop with the Post losing 50 members from 1996 – 1999. Some were due to deaths among the members but most appear to have been from lack of interest with a typical meeting having only 4 members show up. The Post wasn't able to sponsor any of the youth programs, police or fire department awards or even give money to Charlotte Hall, Maryland's only Veteran's Home. The officers considered merging with another post or reducing the meetings to just 4 times per year in an attempt to mitigate this problem.

In the mid-2000's, due to focused efforts by Post leadership, recruitment and retention efforts began to pay off. Adjutant Bill Smith alone signed up 40 members in one year. Operation Member Retention, an effort to visit every member each year, used high school students needing service hours to assist with this. By now, most members had access to email so lots of money was saved by not having to spend 37 cents for each letter.

Since then, Adams, Hanna, Moore Memorial Post 156 has grown and prospered. There currently are over 400 members and the Post is active on many fronts. The post sponsors an abundance of youth activities including Cub Scouts, a Venture Crew, Boys State and even Girls State. Recently they've presented a veteran's point of view at local schools, have representation in the Howard County Veterans office and work with the local landfill where they've set up boxes for residence to deposit no longer serviceable flags for proper disposal. These flags are gathered quarterly and respectfully retired with the help of various youth groups as well as all the local service organizations.

Their balance sheet is doing better than ever allowing the Post to give money and/or items to Charlotte Hall, MCVETs, American Legion Charities, the Semper Fi Fund, The Independence Fund, Vivian Bailey – Care Packages to the Troops and flags for Garrison Forest Cemetery. In addition, members from the post regularly head over to BWI airport and greet veterans heading down to Washington D.C. as part of the national Honor Flight Program. Not everything the Post does is altruistic. They have an excellent time every month at the Columbia Mission BBQ where they belt out the National Anthem at noon and enjoy some of the best food in the area. They enjoyed celebrating their 75^th anniversary this fall at a catered Navy football game and are looking forward to the end of the year Holiday Party with excellent food, beverages, music, Santa and best of all, the company.