On the eleventh day of the eleventh month at the eleventh hour in 1918, WWI ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. While hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops were in Europe awaiting transport back home, the first American Legion Caucus was held in Paris in March 1919. In November 1919, The American Legion received a congressional charter as a veterans support organization and numbered 684,000 members. Local posts began springing up throughout the country. In December 1919, Clovis veterans held a meeting, elected its first officers and applied for a permanent charter. On March 3, 1921, the Clovis American Legion post received its permanent charter and was assigned number 147. Since the post now had a number, they decided to name it in honor of John “Cecil” Cox, the first Clovis resident killed in WWI. Cox was an infantry private assigned to Company B, 2nd Engineer Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. On June 7, 1918, Cox was killed in action at the Battle of Belleau Wood. He was laid to rest in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in Belleau, France.
For the past 100 years members of Cecil Cox Post 147 have dedicated themselves to supporting our veterans and their families, our children and youth, and our community. Most recently, our members cooked and served meals for first responders and evacuees of the Creek Fire at evacuation sites in the foothills and have sponsored several blood drives. All proceeds from our annual golf tournament go to benefit our local veterans.
We regularly sponsored the Clovis Rodeo Association and our local rodeo each year. Our association with the Clovis Rodeo goes back the entire 100 years. We man several booths each year in cooperation with the association.
We have an active honor guard, with over a dozen members making themselves available as the need arises. We make our facility available to our community, providing low-cost rental options to the local community that allows for a safe place to hold any event. We have had 95 commanders over the 100 years of service to our community, including two women. We have steadily increased our membership over the past five years, going from less than 300 to over 500 members currently. We have been awarded the American Legion Post Excellence Award on numerous occasions, including the last three consecutive years.