Dennis Wheeler: Commanding the American Legion post

POST FALLS - Dennis Wheeler is the sixth new commander for the American Legion Post 143 in past three years.

Wheeler said the post has been going through some trying times since the passing of former Commander John Dunlap, who held that position for 30 years.

Wheeler grew up in Post Falls and graduated from Post Falls High School in 1978. He joined the U.S. Coast Guard shortly after that.

He said there has been a lot of focus in recent years on increasing membership, but Wheeler wants to take legion in another direction. He has already revived the post's bingo license which generates more revenue for legion, and he wants to start engaging the community in a deeper way.

Wheeler joined the post in 2009 to be part of the Legion Riders and quickly got involved as a volunteer.

His four-year stint in the U.S. Coast Guard as a Damage Controlman helped prepare him for some of the challenges the legion has faced over the years.

Wheeler said Dunlap got him involved right away when he joined the legion.

So how did you get involved?

John Dunlap, the commander of the post at that time, wanted that patio built out there. He had heard that I was in construction and I was probably working for Contractors Northwest back then. I told him I could do that for him, and we built that with a 30-by-40 foot trellis. All of that was built for $5,000 through donations. That's probably a $30,000 patio.

It wasn't that hard. I was amazed at how easy it was to raise donations. All I had to say was "I am with the American Legion," and a lot of businesses were more than willing to donate. I was surprised at how giving businesses were with the legion. Interstate Concrete donated the concrete at cost. Champion brought out the concrete pump for free and Lowe's donated $1,700 worth of materials and seven guys to help erect the trellis. Danny White laid the concrete for $300 and that was probably a $1,500 job. He just did it for gas money and little beer money for his guys.

The barbecue pit was built by a couple of Masons and to tell you the truth, I cannot remember their names for the life of me. The Boy Scouts built the benches as part of their Eagle Scout project.

It's just really pretty amazing how much people give to the legion, and how much the legion gives back to the community.

You had mentioned that the legion has gone through some rough times recently - could you explain what happened?

I am the sixth commander in the three years since John passed. John was commander for 30 years before that. So the change in command shouldn't happen that often. To me it seemed like people wanted that ... um, power, so to speak ... that they thought John had, but to me John was just a good manager of people. And that's what you have to do. We have a thousand members and not all of us think alike - at all. If you can just deal with people and try to make everyone happy - which is kind of impossible, but try to do the best you can to make everything right with everybody - it just starts to work. The thing that was going on with all of these other guys is that they thought this would be fun, but then they find out about all of the pressures this jobs has. There are a lot of pressures to deal with. As long as I can remember, even when John was alive, we never had a full executive council in this post. There were a lot of vacated seats, one or two officers that they could never get anyone to volunteer for.

Has that changed?

At the time of my election, it was amazing. Not only did we get the nine seats filled, we actually created another position for the director of Legion Riders on the council. So now we have 10 members on the council and every seat is full. That has never happened, and another thing that has never happened is that all of our officers get along for one common good and what is in the best interest of the legion. We don't fight, we don't argue and we talk everything out. It's a different legion and executive council than I have ever seen.

What did you do before you became commander?

Before I became commander I was second vice-commander for two years. It kind of suited me because you are in charge of maintenance, you're in charge of the lounge and you're in charge of the kitchen. You are also in charge of events. I was big on events because I wanted to have events that would bring legion members in. One of the most successful ones we had was a Valentine's Day dance. It was a dinner-and-dance type thing and we had an eight-piece Jimmy Dorsey type band in here. We had 91 veterans come to the event, and one of them was a World War II veteran - and he was 90 years old. It made my heart feel good to see him up there dancing with his wife. That's what the post should be doing, is try and remember those who laid it all out there. Maybe they didn't give their lives, but they were out there laying their lives on the line to keep our country safe and free.

So when did you take over as commander?

It was in April. The legion had been on a downward slide for about six months and it was getting really bad. We were losing income out of our lounge. The lounge really isn't the legion, but that being said, it really does pay a lot of the bills here. When you start losing money in that, and that is your main source of income, it doesn't take long until the doors close, especially with the amount of money we owe on this building. If we didn't have such a big mortgage on it, we would be sitting fine, but we do have a huge mortgage that we have to pay. It's all in participation. If you can't make it in there, then you have to have other avenues to make it.

That's where the bingo comes in, right?

Yes, we do have bingo starting up again on the 14th. That will be a big one for us. Bingo, even though it is regulated by the Idaho State Lottery Commission, it donates a lot of money to the post. Not all, but part of the money can be donated to the post to do the things we need to do and stay opened.

What prompted you to run for commander?

It was going bad. There was a lot of infighting going on with the executive council at the time. It was probably pretty close to 50-50 on the headbutting. There were a lot of new people that transferred in here, but they didn't know what it was actually like when things were going good for the post.

I had been here long enough to know when things were going good, and when it was going bad. And they only saw it bad, so they didn't realize we were under such duress. I just didn't want the doors to close. I didn't really want to run for commander because it takes an awful lot of your time and you're doing it for free. You know, you are doing it out of the goodness of your heart. It's like you believe in something so much that you are willing to give up a lot to see it succeed.

I didn't want to see the doors close because this place had gotten to me, and means a lot to me and my wife. She is actually the bar manager here and she has been the bar manager for a long time. We just believe in it and we want to help veterans, but it's not just the veterans - the legion is a family. Like the ladies auxiliary, a lot of their husbands were vets and some of them have passed, but the auxiliary is still part of the legion family. And the Sons of the Legion are trying to keep the legacy of their father or grandfather alive, and that is important.

What are some of the community things the legion participates in?

We try to follow a pattern every year, including Memorial Day, Flag Day, 9/11, Veterans Day - we go to high schools and speak to the students. On Flag Day we have a ceremony to burn flags. On 9/11 in Post Falls, I am giving a speech at City Hall. There are just so many things. We do a lot, and of course coordinating volunteers, and we always need volunteers. The more we get, the better off we are.

You have obviously made some changes, do you have plans for other changes in the future, or do you already have enough on your plate?

We want to do more. My thing wasn't to come in here and start recruiting members. My thing is, if we make the post fun again, the members will follow. If we make the place fun again by adding more dances and get out in the community, we can grow the membership base.

We have a lot of life members out there who pay their membership fees but they never use the post. We had an end of the summer dance here just recently for high schoolers. We didn't have a large turnout, maybe 25 kids or so, but they had food and stuff with a karaoke machine and they had fun.

The Post Falls Police stopped by and they loved it, and we are planning to do more of those in the future. The police loved it because it gives these teens something to do. It gets them off the streets. My second vice-chair is out talking with the high schools and in Post Falls, Coeur d'Alene and Rathdrum to see if that is something they may want to start doing more often. He is going to offer them a Saturday dance night once a month.

We also want to do more with our police and fire departments. It may be a little late this year, but we want to get them out there with the community and put them in sumo wrestling suits and have some fun with that and we can make it a fundraiser for them. The executive council we have now absolutely wants to try and get out there to help our community and keep the doors open to the legion as well.