From the Nashua Telegraph, May 25, 1991, pg. 30. Story by Telegraph staffer, Sally Bashalany
When the Persian Gulf crisis broke out, the James E. Coffey Post of the American Legion rallied around the families of the troops.
Thought the war is now over, soldiers are still in the gulf and families are just beginning to get themselves back on track. The post is still there for them, giving emotional support through group meetings and financial aid to those who are having troubled times.
The organization provides this support quietly, without fanfare, and without expectations of thanks.
The veterans know what it's like to b a soldier's family, and so they unhesitatingly give of themselves.
"We got a call one time through the national office to move a family from Derry to Nashua," recalls past commander, Jack Lemery.
The woman's husband had just been called to the gulf, and she wanted to move back near family.
"She was alone. We helped her move," Lemery says.
The post does not merely function as a social gathering place, Lemery insists.
"The last thing it is, is social." he says. "A lot more goes on behind the scenes."
The post is heavily involved in youth work, sponsoring a baseball team, running oratorical competitions for high school students, and working with Boys and Girls State.
In the oratorical contest, Scott Sullens, a senior at Nashua High, was the runner-up in this year's statewide competition. The speeches, both prepared and extemporaneous, deal with the Constitution.
Teens also learn about government through Boys and Girls State. The post sent 17 students last year to those meeting.
The post also works with the handicapped and Special Olympics, Lemery says.
"There's an awful lot the Legion does and is involved in," he says, following the national motto of "get involved."
During the Persian Gulf War, the post gave out more than 700 flags, conducted letter writing to soldiers, and sent "tons of personal items" to those stationed in the gulf.
The American Legion was instituted in Paris at the end of World War I. In 1919, the James E. Coffey Post was the third incorporated in New Hampshire. It is now located in the former police precinct on Court Street, built in 1890.
Each Memorial Day, the post honors fallen soldiers by laying memorial wreaths at Deschenes Oval.
"(Private Amedee) Deschenes and James Coffey were Nashua boys who died within hours of each other" in World War I, Lemery says.
"It was determined that Coffey died first...we named the post after him, and the oval (on Railroad Square) after Deschenes."
Coffey, born in Nashua in 1897, was one of the first Nashuans to enlist at the start of World War I, according to a brief history written by his sister, Olive Beland. He was a member of Company D, 103rd Infantry, 26th Division.
Coffey was killed in action in May 1918 at St. Agnaut Toul Sector in France, the first local man to die in battle. In 1930, the post held its first memorial Mass at St. Patrick Church, a practice that became an annual tradition.
Last Sunday, the group joined the two other veterans organization in Nashua to honor their dead in a solemn march to Holy Infant Jesus Church on Allds Street, where a service was held. The post's color guard, current state champions, let the procession in the walk from Lyons Field to the church.
On Jun 21, 111 post from the state will convene in Nashua, capped by a parade that Sunday.
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