American Legion Lebron Post 58

Esports program, which is designed to reduce veteran suicide by providing an environment of a connection.

Suicide has no single cause and no one approach can end it-but prevention is possible, especially when Veterans find support before a crisis happens.
That’s the mission of the American Legion Lebron Post 58 in Guthrie with its Bunker 58 Esports program, which is designed to reduce veteran suicide by providing an environment of a connection, teamwork, and camaraderie for local veterans.
“Bunker 58 started as an idea between three Legionnaires a couple of years ago,” said Army veteran and Lebron Post 58 Chaplain George Shafer. “We were sitting around drinking coffee, and one of our members read an article in the National American Legion Magazine about a partnership with a gaming organization. And in that article, it explained to us that eSports provides a level of camaraderie, accountability, and competition that veterans crave. We began the process of looking into what it would look like to get that program at our post here in Guthrie. And we began looking at the cost and looking into the internet, and considering where we could potentially run the program.”
Shafer said the process began of reaching out to Regiment Gaming, which is the nation’s largest veteran-only gaming community in the country.
“I was able to make contact with Chris Earl, who’s the CEO of Regiment, and that began a working relationship with both Regiment and Paradox Customs to get the computers,” Shafer said. “Our committee worked tirelessly from February until July, getting the room designated, getting the room prepared. We coordinated with the community. We coordinated with many entities to help make this happen. And finally, on July 10th, we had our grand opening.”
Shafer said the grand opening was a success.
“It exceeded our expectations dramatically,” he said. “We were hoping on a Wednesday afternoon to hopefully get 10 or 20 people to come out and look at what we were doing. We ended up having over 100 people show up. We were able to speak with veterans and attendants who had never stepped foot into an American Legion before. We were able to procure new memberships coming from a younger demographic. And the response that we got from our immediate community was overwhelmingly special.”
Shafer said Bunker 58 is a passion project for Lebron Post 58 members.
“Many of our committee members are enthusiastic about this project because we know somebody who has succumbed to being part of the 22 a day,” Shafer said, in reference to the number of veteran suicides per day. “Our goal is to have this program up and running so that it is a safe place to land for any veteran who finds themselves struggling during the holidays, starting with Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving through the week after New Year’s, is our target goal to get good at facilitating, mentoring, and assisting veterans through this new venue.”
Shafer said each Esports committee member is being trained how to operate the gaming equipment by Brent Lemmons, vice-chair of the Esports committee and former Esports coach at Guthrie High School.
“We’re training our committee members on how to operate the equipment,” Shafer said. “We will train up the entire committee on how to start up, run, diagnose, fix, assist, get people onto gaming platforms, working with the different areas of hardware like the mouse, the keyboard, the headset, the controller, the towers.”
Shafer said when the training is finished, the goal is to host game nights and tournaments.
“We’d like to have beginner nights where people just step in and they learn about what Esports is, and how they can take advantage of it,” he said.
Shafer, like other veterans, has had his share of struggles since leaving the military.
He said his faith and a support network has helped him.
“I am a veteran that has struggled,” he said. “I’ve been out of the military for 10 years. I have struggled with the aimlessness, and the lack of passion, feeling worthless, feeling empty, feeling void.”
Shafer said his struggles help him better help other veterans.
“When I see that in somebody else, I’m able to recognize it,” he said. “Not because I’ve experienced exactly what that person has experienced, but it rekindles my desire to ensure that nobody ever feels that way again. To ensure that they understand that they’re made in the image of God, in the image of their creator, and that they have worth, and that they have value. Even if they no longer wear the uniform or serve the country, they still have value and they still have worth, and they still have things that they were put on this planet to do. And if I can help them get through this short, temporal period of feeling empty, it’s my honor to do that.”
According to a 2023 Military Times article, video games have gone hand in hand with military service since the 1990s when service members would take their Nintendo or Sega Genesis consoles on deployment with them. While much has changed in the quality and quantity of gaming services and platforms, one thing has remained constant: Military members love video games.
They love them so much that the Navy, Army, Marine Corps, Air Force/Space Force, and Coast Guard have established esports teams. The services founded these teams to modernize outreach and recruitment efforts and show a different side to military service.
Shafer said the long-term goal of Bunker 58 is to give veterans an outlet to turn to instead of suicide.
“The long-term goal is to end veteran suicide. So, do I believe video games are the answer for veteran suicide? No, I do not. I believe that Esports are a methodology to reaching potential veterans that could be struggling,” he said. “And that is our responsibility. Do we want veterans to come out and play video games? Of course. Absolutely. We want to provide that environment. We want the environment to be safe, we want it to be warm, we want it to be engaging. But when people pull me aside in my role as a chaplain to discuss matters of faith, suicidal tendencies, financial hardships, joblessness, I believe that is the core of the program that will eventually begin to save lives.”

For more information about Bunker 58 call the Lebron Post 58 post at (405) 282-2589.

by Van Mitchell, Staff Writer

Family, duty, and giving back are some of the hallmark virtues that Army veteran Clyde Houston has lived by.
Family and friends gathered on July 13 at the Montellano Event Center in Oklahoma City to celebrate his 104th birthday and paid homage to a man who made a positive impact on so many lives.
Houston was one of the Greatest Generation born in Porter, Oklahoma on July 17th, 1920.
Houston faced many challenges and according to his family, he never wavered on his duties as a soldier and a father. He served in the U.S. Army from 1941-1945 as a Quartermaster military occupational specialty and provided troops with supplies and logistical services.
Houston grew up during the Golden Age of American Sports and emphasized the value in good physical fitness and sporting activities. Throughout his lifetime, he continued to teach the importance of maintaining good health and physical fitness with his own athletic children and shared this love of sports with all the neighborhood kids.
To help teach kids the value of sporting activities and get kids involved with different athletics, he built a neighborhood basketball court to give his children and local kids an outlet to play sports, build teamwork skills and prepare these young men and women for life lessons that you can only learn from playing sports.
“My dad was kind of the caregiver for us and the neighborhood kids too,” said Deborah Lynn Furman, Houston’s daughter. “When my dad would cook, he would make sure the kids in the neighborhood, he provided them if they wanted to eat, they were welcome to it. He played basketball with the kids. That is how most of us learned how to play sports because my dad taught us. My dad was a hands-on dad. My dad got out there, played with the kids in the neighborhood, played with his kids. That’s the kind of man he is.”
Houston grew up in humble surroundings in Haskell, but later became a well-known high school athlete.
“My dad was a basketball star with his school, Haskell High School and played football and baseball,” Furman said. “He loved baseball and even played against (Negro League and Major League Hall of Famer) pitcher Satchel Paige (as adults). Back then my dad said they used to go to these little towns (across the country) and play and they would run them out of town because they did not allow Blacks.”
Throughout his military service and civilian career, Houston held several jobs and positions but none of those careers were as important as his role as husband to his late wife of 70 years Dolly Jewel Durham Houston and father to his eight children.
Houston has 22 grandchildren, 57 great-grandchildren, and 26 great-great grandchildren.
“My dad was the kind of man that we all would sit down at the dinner table and eat together. My parents did that daily,” Furman said. “He taught us how to honor the elderly. He taught us how to be respectful and mindful of people’s feelings and to be kind and giving.”
Furman said giving back was important to her father and his faith.
“My dad was a real giving person,” she said. “If it were something that a church member was lacking, like not having food in their house, my dad would take a sack of groceries to those people. My dad instilled in us that you had to have a good work ethic. You had to be honest, and you could not take anything that did not belong to you. You had to work for what you wanted because he did that. And my dad took care of us. We never wanted for anything, and with eight kids, that is a task in itself.”
Furman said her father was proud of his military service but added that his experience was shadowed with the way Black soldiers were treated.
“I will put it this way, my dad said they weren’t fair about certain things. It was certain jobs that the Black soldiers were assigned to,” Furman said. “And my dad was a Quartermaster. He took the supplies around to the different platoons.”
Furman said her father taught his children to not be prejudiced and treat people how you would want to be treated.
“My dad didn’t curse,” she said. “My parents didn’t use profanity. We weren’t subjected to that. We had loving parents. My dad is easy going. My dad was the kind of person, like at Christmastime, my dad, if you give him a pair of socks, he is happy. You give him anything. He didn’t want us to grow up being like that (angry) because he felt like eventually things would get better and eventually it did.”
After separating from the military, Houston worked for Spartan Aeronautics before moving from Haskell to Oklahoma City.
“My mother wanted to move to Oklahoma City where her mother was, so my dad got on at the post office downtown,” Furman said. “He later worked construction and hurt his back and retired.”
Furman said faith has been her father’s bedrock in life.
“My dad wakes up every morning praying to God, every morning,” she said. “Faith is very important to him. My dad was a member of Church of God in Christ, my mother was Methodist, so it was different from what my mother was accustomed to. But once my mother married my dad, she joined the Church of God in Christ and that is all I know. I know that faith, love, and being decent and honest is the main objective that my parents taught us. And to believe in God and always trust in Him because that is your source.”

Ernest Martin, Post Commander

Starting his 13th year as Post Commander.

Story by Marise Boehs, Staff Writer

American Legion Post 88, Norman, OK had a very successful year and is on a positive path to replicate this same pattern in 2024.
Part of the mission in 2023 was to assist all veterans and their surviving spouses with the initiation of their individual claims and follow-up processing. During this same time, Post 88 received two grants that supported their community outreach program and helped rehabilitate the vintage one-hundred year old building. Also during this time, a strong online presence for the veteran community was established on multiple social media platforms.
Starting his 13th year as Post Commander, retired US Army veteran Ernest Martin said, “It is an honor to serve our veteran community with the strength of six Veteran Service Officers and two Post Service Officers (in training) who volunteer their time at our post have assisted over 600 veterans in getting their VA claim process started.”
Of those claims, 250 have been awarded a financial payment which generated $6,067,329 in 2023. This is an increase from 2022 when VSOs reported $2,890,129 in awarded claims. Additionally, there have been 37 surviving spouses who have received appropriate counseling and benefits information from our post.
Not every claim is the same, and it is very important to identify the possibilities when speaking to a veteran who has had very little success with other veteran service officer locations.
“Our Service Officers, since March 1st 2020, have brought into Cleveland County and the surrounding areas just shy of $12.5 million dollars in benefits,” said Post Commander Ernest Martin. “That is a huge amount of income into our community. It helps to keep Veterans in their home and not on the street.”
Post 88 staff stand by the importance of identifying the successful results that can be achieved if given an opportunity to help serve each veteran in our community, surrounding area and abroad.
“We pride ourselves on our outstanding volunteer force of Veteran Service Officers who dedicate their service to Post 88,” Martin said.
These Veteran Service Officers are all volunteers and lead by VA-accredited Mr. Carl Ellison a resident of Purcell, OK who has been serving Post 88 for eight (8) years. Mr. Ellison’s responsibility is to ensure that all veterans and their family members receive appropriate representation with their VA benefit claim. Mr. Ellison has said, “There is never a fee to file a claim or help guide and consult in filing an initial application for VA benefits and if someone is charging you a fee — it’s illegal.”
Post 88 was first chartered in 1919. The current building was built by WPA workers in 1935-36. It has survived many serious situations, both natural and synthetic.
In November 2022, Post 88 was awarded $330,000 from the Covid 19 Relief grant program which facilitated much needed building repairs which began in 2023.
The inside of the facility received a “facelift” to include a new generator, flooring, lighting, cubicle offices with computer monitors and security doors.
Post 88 is open EVERY MONDAY from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. On the third Monday of the month, they are open for appointments only, please call Carl Ellison at (405) 823-0910. If these hours do not fit your schedule, please call us at the number above to make other arrangements.
Monthly membership meetings are held on the third Monday of each month and all new members and guests are welcome.. Meetings begin at 7pm, but guests are encouraged to arrive early to socialize and meet the Post Officers.
If you or a friend would like to help with their mission to support local Veterans, please reach out to (405) 366-7575
Post 88 Commander Ernest Martin is preparing a sponsorship campaign calling on the local business community and surrounding area to help ensure this American Legion Post continues to be a resource in times of need.
“It is my responsibility to prepare this Post to thrive for the next one hundred years,” he explained. “I hope that you will consider helping us to be here and prepare to meet all veteran needs as well as any future Natural Disasters/Pandemic that comes this way. I what this Post be a beacon in the community, a haven when in time of need, a place where hope is found and procured.”