On June 23, 2023, Prescott Valley Post 140 became the first American Legion post to use a name from the Missing in America Project (MIAP). We were surprised by the presentation of our new charter with our new name “Jerome S. Cranke” at the Arizona department convention in Tucson. Our Sons of the American Legion Squadron 140 were presented their new charter as well. We hope we are not the last.
It all started when a member of the Post 140 Executive Board, Dennis Pittman, suggested we use a MIAP name. The board voted unanimously to go forward with his suggestion.
The process was a bit lengthy because we were the first to try this. Fortunately, we had support from Clyde Taylor, national vice president and Arizona representative for MIAP. Clyde was honored that our post wanted to name our post after a MIAP veteran. Clyde provided our post with three names of veterans from Arizona. Our post voted on the three names presented and Cranke was chosen. The Department of Arizona was also very receptive to our request. They approved our request and forwarded it to National Headquarters for approval. Our request was approved by National Headquarters on May 12, 2023.
Jerome S. Cranke was a Spanish-American War veteran whose remains had gone unclaimed for 92 years. Thanks to MIAP, his cremains were discovered still sitting at Greenwood Cemetery in Phoenix, in the mortuary. Finding that he was a veteran, MIAP claimed the cremains and they were interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix on Dec. 29, 2021.
On July 18, 2023 our post held a name-change celebration. Clyde was our keynote speaker, and Tim Prater from Sons of Spanish-American War Veterans also spoke. We had guests from District 8, Patriot Guard Riders, the Sons of The American Legion detachment, and the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. All members of Post 140 present signed the new charter as charter members. It was a great evening with good food and cake.
We are honored to be able to use the name Jerome S. Cranke for our post. We hope many more posts across the country will follow suit when considering a post name.