Official Website of George Walton Post 371
41 N. Lakeview Drive, P.O. Box 125, Gibbsboro, NJ 08026
AMERICAN LEGION POST 371.
WELCOMES YOU
Our Mission:
- Provide Military Veterans and their Families
with camaraderie and support.
- Provide our community with resources
and guidance to foster American ideals,
civic pride, and prosperity.
Please take a few moments to browse our various categories
to find out what is happening in and around Post 371.
Feel free to call (856.783.7327) or email any questions or comments.
Thank you for visiting us.
Howard Secrest, Post Commander
See Commanders complete message here.
A Soldier Died Today
Just a common soldier
Written and published in 1987 by Canadian veteran and columnist A. Lawrence Vaincourt.
on July 4, 2008, it was carved into a marble monument at West Point, New York.
CONGRESSIONAL MEDAL of HONOR
The Medal of Honor is the United States' highest award for military valor in action.
And while over 150 years have passed since its inception, the meaning behind the Medal has never tarnished.
Etched within are the very values that each Recipient displayed in the moments that mattered---
bravery, courage, sacrifice, integrity.
A distinguished award presented only to the deserving, the Medal tells a story of its own.
NATHAN G. GORDON
WORLD WAR II
u.S. Navy
LIEUTENANT
(HIGHEST RANK: LIEUTENANT COMMANDER)
UNIT: PATROL SQUADRON 34 (VPB-34), NAVAL AIR BASE,
SAMARI ISLAND, NEW GUINEA
PLACE: KAVIENG HARBOR, BISMARCK SEA,
EW IRELAND, SOUTHWESTERN PACIFIC
FEBRUARY 15, 1944
Out of the 41 million who have served in the U.S. military, the Medal has been presented to only 3,511 service members.
Check this space often for more MEDAL OF HONOR stories.
For extraordinary heroism above and beyond the call of duty as commander of a Catalina patrol plane in rescuing personnel of the U.S. Army 5th Air Force shot down in combat over Kavieng Harbor in the Bismarck Sea, 15 February 1944. On air alert in the vicinity of Vitu Islands, Lt. (then Lt. jg) Gordon unhesitatingly responded to a report of the crash and flew boldly into the harbor, defying close-range fire from enemy shore guns to make three separate landings in full view of the Japanese and pick up nine men, several of them injured. With his cumbersome flying boat dangerously overloaded, he made a brilliant takeoff despite heavy swells and almost total absence of wind and set a course for base, only to receive the report of another group stranded in a rubber liferaft 600 yards from the enemy shore. Promptly turning back, he again risked his life to set his plane down under direct fire of the heaviest defenses of Kavieng and take aboard six more survivors, cooly making his fourth dexterous takeoff with 15 rescued officers and men. By his exceptional daring, personal valor, and incomparable airmanship under most perilous conditions, Lt. Gordon prevented certain death or capture of our airmen by the Japanese. (3/17)
(Check this space frequently for more "Medal of Honor" stories.)