Author: MoMadison

Communications – Level 2

This level add to level by the addition of a website and, optionnaly, a monthly newsletter. Currently, the preferred website for posts is “Legionsites.” Use a word processor (Microsoft Word) with the intention of creating a YEARBOOK. Submit the printed Yearbook for competition.
 

Sample post main page using Legionsites.

A monthly newsletter can be as simple as a single page or several pages stapled.

Front page of a post monthly newsletter.
A yearbook cover page.

Become a Historian

Norwich University. Norwich University provides an online Graduate Degree Programs such as Master of Arts in History. This online program is 18 months in length and are conducted entirely online.

Norwich University is proud to be the birthplace of America’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and the only private Senior Military College. We celebrate over two centuries of commissioned officer development.

The Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, commonly known as ROTC, is a college program that aims to develop leadership skills and tactical prowess among students who aspire to serve in the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, or Space Force. Norwich University is the first of six Senior Military Colleges in the United States that offers this program.

Recipients of the Martha Marlow Award for Historians

Above is the most recent version of the award, 2024.

Key factors in the Martha Marlowe award:

  • Shows consistent and significant support of the historian’s mission.
  • Assists other in learning how to retain and present history of the American Legion activities.
  • Develops new approaches to solving issues in maintaining histories.

Historians do not like blank spaces. Please help us fill in the missing recipient years and districts.

  • Recipients
    • 2025/26
    • 2024/25 – Tim Yauck, Post 522, Hubertus (2nd) “Wisconsin’s Forgotten Heroes”
    • 2023/24 – Morris Sadicario, Post 501, Madison, WI (3rd)
    • 2022/23
    • 2021/22
    • 2020/21
    • 2019/20 – COVID (no recipient)
    • 2018/19 – Fred Fink, Post 214, Darlington (3rd)
    • 2017/18
    • 2016/17
    • 2015/16
    • 2014/15 – Kendel Feilen, Post 415, Milwaukee (4th)
    • 2013/14
    • 2012/13 – Eric Brown, Boys State Historian
    • 2011/12 – Norm Bednarek, Post 47, Portage (2nd)
    • 2010/11 – James M. Rohan, Post 333, Sun Prairie (3rd)
    • 2009/10 – John Kovatch, Post 470, Saukville (2nd)
    • 2008/09 – Robert Moen, Post 498, Milwaukee (4th)
    • 2007/08 – Laurie Arendt, Auxiliary 355, Grafton (2nd)
    • 2006/07 – Leo P. Kulcinski, Post 310, Racine (1st)
    • 2005/06 – Denise Rohan, Post 333, Sun Prairie (3rd)
    • 2004/05 – Michael Wagoner, Post 52, La Crosse (7th)
    • 2003/04 – not awarded
    • 2002/03 – Donald C. Southworth, Post 469, Marathon (8th)
    • 2001/02 – Frank Mathison, Post 116, Chaseburg (7th)
    • 2000/01 – Robert C. Andersen, Post 345, Hingham (2nd)
    • 1999/00 – Robert W. Foley, Post 303, Winter (12th)
    • 1998/99 – Blanche Smith, Post 93, Tomahawk (11th)
    • 1997/98 – Jerry Casler, Post 185, Grantsburg (12th)
    • 1996/97 – Nellie P. De Baker, Post 262, Luxemburg (9th)
    • 1995/96 – Hubert Jakubovsky, Post 203, Milwaukee (4th)
    • 1994/95 – Loretta Miller, Post 70, Oshkosh (6th)
    • 1993/94 – Richard Zeitlin, Non-Legion
    • 1992/93 – Rosemarie Pitz, Post 70, Oshkosh, 6th
    • 1991/92 – Norbert Dziatkiewicz, Post 505, Milwaukee (4th)
    • 1990/91 – David Korth, Post 54, Marshfield (8th)
    • 1989/90 – Barbara Stuvengen, Post 209, Orfordville (1st)
    • 1988/89 – Arthur Heglund, Post 498, Milwaukee (4th)
    • 1987/88 – James Reininger, Post 333, Sun Prairie (3rd)
    • 1986/87 – Martin I. Bachhuber, Post 1, Milwaukee (2nd)
    • 1985/86 – Robert R. Filter, post 23, Milwaukee (5th)
    • 1984/85 – Ethel Matuschka, Post 448, Milwaukee (5th)
    • 1983/84 – Harold Van Dyke, Post 258, Little Chute, (9th)
    • 1982/83 – Hale Hunt, Post 52, La Crosse (7th)

Tim Yauck’s “Project Namesake”

Abstract: Operation Namesake ensures that each American Legion post honors the service member it is named after by preserving and sharing their story. The initiative involves researching, documenting, and presenting these legacies through multimedia to post members, communities, schools, and civic groups in Wisconsin. The mission is to remember the namesake as a life and legacy, not just a name, fulfilling a duty to keep their stories alive. Tim Yauck, Hubertus Post 522, was the recipient of the 2024/25 Martha Marlowe Historian of the Year Award. This award is for exceptional historical activity.

Tim developed “Project Namesake.” His mission statement:

“Operation namesake exists to ensure that every American Legion post’s namesake, that is the service member whose name the post carries, is remembered not only as a name on a wall, but as a life, a story, and a legacy. Our mission is simple in concept, but profound in impact. Every Legion post will research, document, and share the complete story of their namesake through multimedia presentations that will be shared with post members, communities, schools, and civic groups throughout Wisconsin.

We research their lives. We present their stories to the community. We keep their stories alive and fulfill our sacred duty.”

TAL Resource Guide for American Legion Digital Media

Look at the “TAL Resource guide for American Legion Digital Media.” This is a great reference for obtaining American Legion information for repackaging.

These links include direct access to The American Legion’s membership, centennial and memorial database web page, e-newsletters, social media channels, brochures, smartphone apps, videos and more.

Digital_Media_Resource_Guide_65MAG0919Download

2026 Midwinter Training Agenda

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

This Wisconsin Historians Association (WHA) training will be presented at the 2026 Midwinter Conference to WHA members, prospective WHA members and interested non-members. This one-hour session will explain how to use Microsoft Word to generate the index, citations, and the table of contents for yearbooks and how to watch out for pitfalls in the process. The index, itself, is worth up to 10 percent of the 100 points possible when scoring yearbooks submitted to Department. If time permits, we’ll answer questions members might have from the previous training on MailChimp.

This training is currently scheduled for presentation following the regular meeting of the WHA, 1pm-3pm, in the Onondaga Room of the Oneida Hotel and Convention Center, Green Bay, WI. Make sure you register to attend the 2026 Midwinter Conference. Department Historian Morris Sadicario will be the presenter.

Midwinter 2026 AgendaDownload

Promote Your Story

American Legion posts and family members provide service year-round to veterans and their families, active-duty servicemembers, youth and community members. And The American Legion wants to hear these stories.

The Legiontown U.S.A. website has recently undergone a redesign that showcases multiple stories at once, allows Legion Family members to feature links to YouTube videos created by them, and enables stories to be shared throughout social media. This nationwide sharing will promote the many ways Legion Family members dedicate themselves to a cause greater than themselves.

The Legion wants you to share your good experiences, whether it’s welcome-home celebrations for returning servicemembers, membership drives, honor and rememberance stories, visiting patients at a VA hospital, sponsoring young men and women to Boys and Girls State, hosting fundraisers, donating to Legion charities, or converting a post into a makeshift shelter for victims affected by a natural disaster. Posts, Sons of The American Legion squadrons and Auxiliary units are turning an ordinary community into a Legiontown every day.

For many Legion Family members, these services go unnoticed, but not for those who share their stories on Legiontown — www.legiontown.org. The sharing of stories provides inspiration to posts, squadrons and units located throughout the country on how to promote the Legion in their communities.