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May 23, 2025–Lewis and Clark County Veterans Memorial Foundation will conduct the traditional Memorial Day Ceremony at the Lewis & Clark Count Veterans Memorial, located in Memorial Park, Helena at 3:00 p.m. on Friday, May 30, 2025. 

We invite all Gold Star families, area veterans, their families and the Citizens of the City of Helena and Lewis & Clark County to attend this 156th anniversary of Memorial day established in 1868.

This solemn ceremony is to recognize U.S., Montana and Lewis Clark County veterans who paid the ultimate price through their selfless service. The Lewis and Clark County Veterans Memorial was dedicated on August 15, 1949, by the Citizens of this County, to recognize their sacrifice and further resolve to honor their legacy through taking care of this community tribute to them.

In case of inclement weather, the Ceremony will be moved Lewis and Clark, American Legion Post 2 at the same time.

We will be privileged to hear from Sergeant Major (Ret) Mike Russell, a Vietnam Veteran.  SGM Russell comes from an extensive line of Montana Pioneers that settled in this State at Abe Lincoln Gulch, now known as Lincoln, Montana, back in 1863. He joined the US Army right out of high school in March of 1967. Taking basic training at Fort Bliss, Texas. Upon graduation, from Basic, Mike was shipped to Fort Rucker, Alabama, for his  advanced Individual Training (AIT).

When he joined the Army, his recruiter asked Russell what he wanted to do.  His reply  as a military photographer associated with Army aviation, therefore he was enlisted into the OV-1 Mohawk Training Program. Graduating second in his class he was transferred to the 1st School Support Company, at Fort Rucker, Alabama and had various duties supporting the training of new Aviation Officers and Enlisted Personnel.

In February of 1968 Russell was transferred to the Republic of Vietnam where he served from February of 1968 to October of 1969. Upon my Date Estimate Return Overseas Service DEROS) from Vietnam, he was then released from the Active Army and served out his commitment of service in the Inactive Ready Reserve.

In June of 1986 he felt needed to get his life in order and joined the US Army Reserves. He was then stationed in various training units and became an instructor and personnel Sergeant with a USAR School Support Company.

In 1990 he was asked to support the Montana Army National Guard in a program known as School House to the Soldier, where he served as the Liaison NCO for this program for a period of 6 months.

At the end of this tour, he was asked if he wanted to join the Montana Army National Guard as an Instructor and Personnel Sergeant, which Mike agreed to willingly as this was the  opportunity to return to Montana, the home of his father and ancestors.

Russell remained in the Service and transferred back to the US Army Reserve in February of 1996. He was immediately promoted numerous times and made the enlisted grade of 1st Sergeant and then later as a Sergeant Major. Upon that promotion he returned to his roots at Fort Bliss, Texas and attended the Sergeants Major Academy.

After completion of the academy, he was called to active duty after 9/11 and served as the Personnel G1 Sergeant Major for the 88th Ready Reserve Command, Blue Devils, out of Fort Snelling, MN., where SGM Russell oversaw deploying and processing personnel from the Ready Reserve to tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. Upon completion of that duty, he received 2 Meritorious Service Medals and the Legion of Merit. In the year 2005 he returned to Montana and rejoined the Army Reserves where he finished 28 years of duty in November of 2008.

ACTIVITIES:  ** Posting flags on veterans’ graves in local cemeteries on Saturday, 24 May.  This is being supported by the Americn Legion family, and the members of Scouting America.  Flags will be picked up on June 1.  Flags provided by Post 2. This will be followed by a road cleanup on Custer Avenue. Community is invited.  Meet us at Post 2 at 9:00 a.m.

**Veterans of Foreign Wars, Post 10010, East Helena, will conduct their annual Memorial Day Parade on Monday, May 26, 2025 (the observed Federally/State Holiday).  The Parade begins at VFW Post 10010 and proceeds  at 11:00 a.m.to JFK Park for a Ceremony.  Upon completion the Parade will return to the Post where a Luncheon will be served.   

**The annual  Memorial Day Ceremony will be conducted at the Montana Veterans Affairs Division, State of Montana Cemetery located at historic Fort William Henry Harrison at 9:00 a.m., May 26, 2025.  The guest speaker is Major General John P. Hronek, II, Adjutant General for the State of Montana.

**A new event will be a Sunrise Memorial Day Service observance at  Memorial Park at 8:00 a.m.  Mr. Rob Rule hosts this.  His number is. 406-410-1712.

JANUARY 13, 2025 WHEREAS, in 1919, the Montana Legislature passed a bill that legalized boxing in Montana providing that a certain portion of the net proceeds of boxing matches should go for the benefit soldiers, sailors and marines. The Boxing bill generated in the following years $48,000 placed in a fund for the construction a Veterans Memorial building, and;

WHEREAS, as a result of this bill the fund was started with a landfall from the Dempsey-Gibbons championship fight at Shelby, Montana July 4, 1923, proving nucleus around the ideas of the veterans’ building was formed, and;

WHEREAS, from that day forward the bill provided that a percentage of admission to boxing matches to include the nationally televised Fulmer-Giardello championship fight held in Bozeman in 1960 which added $5,000 to this fund, and;

WHEREAS, the enabling Act by which the State of Montana was created provided that certain income from lands given to the State by the U.S. Government should be used for erecting public buildings at the state Capitol. This income went into the Capitol Building Land Grant Fund. It was from this fund that the greater part of the principal and interest in the new building was paid, and;

WHEREAS, the first legislature approving the erection of a veterans and pioneers building was in 1923. It was hoped that people would voluntarily donate money to erect the building; however, that did not materialize, and;

WHEREAS, the Act finally passed by the Legislative Assembly in 1941 was the one that really set in motion the program for the erection of the veterans and pioneers building, and;

WHEREAS many veterans’ and pioneer groups worked towards the promulgation of the program, to include the Montana Pioneers, the Veterans memorial Fund Commission established in 1941, the Spanish War Veterans established 1900, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, established around 1936, the Disabled American Veterans, established in 1932, and Th Americn Legion established in 1919, with Veterans’ at large representative, and;

WHEREAS, the chief problem was how to build, and where to get the funds for a veterans and pioneers building. It was decided to earmark certain funds in the Capitol Building Land Grant fund, with none of the funding being used for any purpose except building, and;

WHEREAS, after several meetings among interested groups, the Montana Pioneers, the Sons and Daughters of the Pioneers, the Spanish War Veterans, the World War I Veterans of Montana, the Americn Legion of Montana, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans decided to combine forces to erect building to be known as the Montana Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building, and;

WHEREAS, not only the funds earmarked from Capitol Land Grant Fund but also the amount the veterans had on deposit in the State Treasury from the Boxing fund, the latter being used for items which could not be purchased from the Land Gant Fund, and;

WHEREAS to decide whether these funds could be co-mingled, a test case was taken to the Supreme of Montana. The decision of the Court that funds could be co-mingled was a major contribution towards achievement of the desired objective, and;

WHEREAS, finally in 1941, the Legislative Assembly passed an Act to be known as the “Montana Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building.” The Act also provided for bonds to be issued in the amount of $250,000 and that there be a available for funds the bonds all money in the Veterans Memorial fund from the proceeds of boxing and sparing matches, and the remainder of the money for the repayment of the principle of the bonds and interest from the Capitol Building Land Grant fund, and;

WHEREAS, plans were immediately made to issue bonds in the sum of $250,000, however with Word War II starting the Programs temporarily stopped, and;

WHEREAS, the costs were materially increased during World War II an Act passed by the 1945 Legislative Assembly the amount earmarked for the building was increased from $250, 000 to $400,000, and;

WHEREAS, in 1948, the Sonds and Daughters acquired a tax sale deed on 63 lots just east of the Capitol Build, then given ceremoniously to the State of Montana by this group towards the erection of a new building and provision of a site, and;

WHERAS, the architect approved by the Board of Examiners in 1948, and likewise the Veterans and Pioneers organizations was A.V. McIver of Great Falls, Montana, and;

WHEREAS, then Governor John W. Bonner, a World War II veteran and Legionnaire, in in his message to the 31st Legislative Assembly in 1949, endorsed the Montana Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building and recommended that there be set aside for the building an additional $350,000, bringing the total to $750,000.

WHEREAS, competitive grants was awarded to Carson Construction Company in 1950 and the building was completed and occupied in January 1951 by the Montana Department of the American Legion, the Montana Department of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Montana Department of the Disabled Americans, the Montana Veterans of Spanish-American War, World War Veterans, and the 163rd Infantry Regiment of World 1 and World War II famous well as the Mont Pioneers groups as the outstanding example of the strong heritage of Montana’s legendary Veterans and Pioneers, and;

WHEREAS, the Montana Veterans and Pioneers Memorial Building built just east of the Capitol Building with new quarters furnishing badly office and exhibit space for the Montana Historical Society (established in 1864) to include security vault space and a good-sized meeting Room known as the Boo Room, and;

WHEREAS, a Trophy Room was provided for the use of the Veterans organizations for the display of storied Montana military heritage to be supplied by the veterans organizations and veterans of Montana who were encouraged to loan or donate items for display in coordination with the State Historical Society and Library to determine on which military artifacts would make up a complete collection and once selected would be then displayed in specially built display cases, and;

WHEREAS, the Montana Veterans and Pioneers Building was formally dedicated on August 24, 1951. On that date members of Helena’s veterans’ organizations paraded the National, State and Service colors to the speakers stand’ and the municipal band played the National Anthem. Lester H. Lobel, then serving as the Chamber of Commerce president and former judge, and state legislator called the building a quarter century come true. Governor Bonner cited the Memorial Building as symbolic in appreciation and immense pride in Montana’s Veterans and Pioneers. Others also the highest praise for those who worked with unswerving zeal towards attainment of such an expedient objective and cited the building as a shrine to preserve the records of sacrifices and courage of our veterans and pioneers, and;

WHERAS the configuration of the four floors in the Memorial Building was as follows: The ground floor of the building consisting of a museum and gallery of art, the microfilm department and museum workshops. On the main floor was the formal museum, the Charles M. Russell room, art gallery and offices. The Montana Historical Library and historic stack areas were located on the second floor; and top floor is given over entirely to veterans’ offices, a meeting room and military Trophy hall. The first three floors were occupied by the Montana Historical Society, and;

WHEREAS, the Trophy Hall was controlled by the Montana department of the American Legion who undertook the primary role of assembling the collection. This development began in earnest in 1957 under the supervision of Department Adjutant General “Chet” K. Shore, and;

WHEREAS, the room was dedicated on Memorial Day 1958 with work continuing to add to and display the military heritage of Montana under Adjutant Shore’s supervision. He received numerous recognitions until his retirement in 1969.

WHERAS, on December 6, 1964, Legionnaire Tim Babcock, Associate Justice Stanley M. Doyle, and Department Adjutant Shore, the “Trophy Hall” was dedicated by the late Governor Donald G. Nutter and legionnaire on January 20, 1962, five days before the fatal airplane crash that took his life. In 1963 the State Legislature passed a joint resolution naming the hall in honor of the Late governor and Chet Shore as the Chet Shore & Governor Nutter Room. This resolution was passed through the efforts of the American Legion of Montana, and;

WHEREAS, the Fourth floor served as Veterans’ and Pioneers offices, security vaults, meeting rooms and military exhibits are from 1953 to 2001, when the existing Montana Veterans Offices initiated by the Montana Governor’s Office, the Montana Historical Office and the Department of Military Affairs to move the existing Veterans location (American Legion, VFW, and DAV0 to Fort Harrison and into the newly designed wing of the Helena Armed forces Center.

This was accomplished through a series of meetings culminating in an agreement of all parties to proceed. The Top Floor displays in the Chet Shore-Governor Nutter Room and the 163rd Infantry Regiment Offices were to stay in place. There was never an agreement to move them on the future, and;

WHEREAS, Montanans have supported, fought and have died and or have been wounded in all theaters of Wars and conflicts since 1864 to the present as stated in Joseph Kinsey Howards, Book, “High, Wide, and Handsome” which was “Proportionately near the top of all States. In World War II as in World War I, Montanans were quick to enlist and they were healthy, the proportion rejected because of physical defect, was smaller than the national average . Further the Montana Death rate in World War II was only exceeded by that of New Mexico in proportion to population. Montana had the record of oversubscribing first place in eight World War II Saving Bond drives-“’

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED by the 69th Legislative Assembly of the Montana Legislature that the Past Adjutant Chester “Chet” K. Shore- Governor Donald G. Nutter Room and the 163rd Infantry Regiment Room and vault space be restored retained on the Fourth Floor of the Veterans and Pioneers Building in accordance with Statutory Authority contained in Montana Code annotated, Title 22, Libraries, Art and Antiquities, Chapter 3, Antiquities , Part 3, Veterans’ and Pioneers’ Memorial Building. Specific reference to Paragraph 22-3-02 Use of the Building and Paragraph 22—20 Gifts for the Building.