NEW ORLEANS – Local AT&T executives honored the veterans of New Orleans’ only Veterans of Foreign Wars post, Post 8973, located at 531 Lyons St., on Wednesday, November 11, 2015, to commemorate Veterans Day.
Leo Marsh, AT&T External Affairs Manager, Marshall Hevron, VFW member and former Marine and State Representative Neil Abramson were all on hand at the Post when local returning veterans were granted AT&T tablets to assist with their online career searches.
The VFW was founded in 1899 by veterans of the Spanish American War, and there have been chapters in New Orleans ever since the early 20th Century. The VFW Post 8973 was founded by World War II and Korean War Veterans who lived in the Uptown and Irish Channel neighborhoods.
The Post was named after Alfred. E. Flynn, a WWII soldier from the Irish Channel who was killed at the Battle of Luzon in the Philippines. Alfred's brother, John “Fump” Flynn was an original member of the post. Fump Flynn was also one of the owners of the F and M patio bar, which is across the street from the Post. The “F” in F and M stands for “Fump.”
As the older generation passed away, the Post went into decline and was almost shuttered. A generation of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan revived the Post and it has become a place where returning vets gather and re-kindle the sense of camaraderie they felt while in uniform.
The New Orleans’ VFW building, located on the corner of Lyons and Annunciation in uptown New Orleans, is a former corner store and consists of a meeting hall and two apartments. In the coming year, VFW members plan to to renovate the hall and offices and the apartments to make them available to returning veterans at a below market rate.
