Paying respect important for local residents

RANDOLPH – John Dickes has been a VFW member for more than 15 years but only attended his first local meeting of the Alvin Kessler VFW Post 5545 earlier this spring.

Now he finds himself as in charge of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post, taking over for longtime commander Jerry Wiese.

“A lot of the active members are getting older and wanted to pass it off,” Dickes said. “They will still be members but it was getting to the point that if they didn’t get some younger involvement, they were going to have to close. We just want to keep the VFW alive.”

Other changes in leadership include Dickes’ wife, Jenny, takes on the role of quartermaster and Kurt Focken as vice commander. Upon learning the need for new leadership, all three were ready and willing to step in.

John said there will be a large learning curve for him being new to the local organization and new to leading it.

His first goal is communication with the nearly 50 members as well as spreading awareness about the group so that other veterans will join.

It’s their shared experience that bond members together.

“It’s the camaraderie. It’s its own little support group,” Dickes said.

Focken enlisted in the Army National Guard in 2004 out of Crete and went into active duty in 2012, deploying twice to Iraq.

Dickes joined the Army National Guard out of Wayne in 2002, but transferred to the South Dakota guard. He was deployed three times, twice to Iraq and once to Europe on a training mission.

Dickes retired with 20 years of experience last year.

The local VFW post plans the annual Memorial Day program and decorates the local cemeteries with flags, plans the annual Veterans Day program, as well as attends and participates in military funerals.

Focken said he would like to see the local post home grow and looks to posts like Stanton, Norfolk and Yankton, S.D., as ones to emulate.

Dickes would like to expand activities to include talking to the next generation about the importance of military service.

The post meets at 7 p.m., on the last Wednesday of each month in the basement of First State Bank.

The Alvin Kessler VFW Post 5545 formed in 1946 and was named for the first foreign service casualty from Randolph in World War II. According to the Randolph history book, the organization nearly dissolved in 1959 but came back stronger than ever. Over the years, the organization sponsored many community projects including the Voice of Democracy essay contest.

Randolph is also home to an active VFW Auxiliary, and American Legion post and auxiliary. Dickes would like for the groups to work together more often in the future.

Anyone interested in becoming a local VFW member, can contact Dickes or Focken, or visit VFW.org.