When it was established in 1925, nearly all of the founders of Veterans of Foreign Wars St. Juvin Post 1336 had a common thread – they served in World War I. Fast forward a century later, and the majority of the Coal City group’s members are Vietnam War veterans.

That difference aside, much of the core connective tissue embedded into Post 1336 a century ago remains intact today. It serves as a support center for veterans returning to civilian life and provides community outreach at every turn possible.

“It’s been a well-standing post,” said Commander James “Hoppy” Phillips Sr., who has been heading up the St. Juvin VFW for the past five years and joined the organization in 1971, when he returned from his duty in Vietnam.

St. Juvin VFW Post 1336 has significance in that it was named after a small village in France of the same time upon its founding in Coal City.

Situated in northeastern France and near the Belgian border, St. Juvin was a staging ground for the U.S. Infantry Divisions to force out the German Army with artillery support and, in the process, captured 540 prisoners over a 10-day span in October 1918.

An estimated 84% of the U.S. 326th Infantry were killed, wounded or missing in action in that specific battle. The incident, Phillips said, prompted the St. Juvin naming to honor the people who made the supreme sacrifice.

Today, VFW Post 1336’s membership stands at 35 veterans. Phillips said about half reside in Coal City and adjacent communities, while the balance live elsewhere but maintain their ties. Membership recruitment efforts have modified in the social media era, Phillips said, though younger veterans are still joining VFWs, including Post 1336.

“With the way things have changed nowadays, people don’t hang around their local community like they used to,” Phillips said.

Over the decades, members of St. Juvin VFW Post 1336 have been present in the community in a variety of ways. Members, for instance, have long distributed the VFW Buddy Poppies that veterans with disabilities create as a symbolic remembrance of the sacrifices people in the military make.

“I do have to say that our community is very generous in their donations when we have a Buddy Poppy Day,” Phillips said. “We do have several benefactors here in town who donate annually to our funds so we can do these things. We’re pretty lucky, as far as that goes.”

St. Juvin VFW Post 1336 also has a strong tradition of reaching out to local youth in a variety of different ways at the intermediate, middle and high school grades. The organization provides annual scholarships, sponsors the Patriot Pen essay program and holds flag presentations at local schools.

“In the high school, we do a presentation on those of us veterans who were over in Vietnam,” Phillips said in explaining one example of the post’s student outreach. “We explain what we did over there, and what the situation was like.”

Members of the Coal City VFW post also roll up their sleeves in several other ways as well. Among them: participation in local parades, maintaining the flags at the Community Veterans Memorial on Route 113, distributing POW and MIA flags throughout the community and participating in the veterans’ blanket program.