Gary Fruland steps up in the community and for his Post

Five years ago, when Newark’s American Legion Post 459 gave up its charter after 94 years, U.S. Marines veteran Gary Fruland was looking for another post he could be a part of. He began going coming to Plano’s American Legion Leon Burson Post 395.

“I wanted to stay with the legion, so I came over here,” he said.

He’s part of the honor guard, participating in community events like parades, sporting events and funerals. “The Plano honor guard is pretty famous. They’ve won state championships.”

Eventually he was made commander of the post.

As a Marine, he served as an air traffic controller in Japan in the waning days of the Vietnam War. After his service ended in 1978, Fruland worked as an air traffic controller until the 1981 strike. After that he worked for the for the U.S. Postal Service, and then BNSF Railroad out of Aurora

Fruland is no stranger to service. Aside from serving as commander of Post 395, he’s active in his church, is a past mayor of Newark and still sits on the Village Board there.

“I needed to learn to say ‘No’ but if I say ‘No’ there aren’t enough people saying ‘Yes’ nowadays,” he said. “Until I can’t do it anymore I’m going to keep doing it.”

One of the projects taking up much of his time is fixing up the Legion hall. He spent much of the summer working to put new floors into the hall. He approached Home Depot to see if they could help him out.

“We got $20,000 from Home Depot,” he said, including tools and manpower to help out to install the flooring. The hall also needs maintenance like painting and roofing repairs.

It’s important to Frulund to keep the Legion going. He’s already seen one post he was a member of close down, and it was a tough experience. It still bothers him five years later.

“A special place that is no longer,” he said of American Legion Post 459. “My dad and I worked many functions there side-by-side since he was a Korean War Army veteran.”

It’s not just the veterans that miss out when a Post closes or closes down. Fruland said Plano knows the legion is there.

“They see us at the football games, they see us leading their parades,” he said. The post also raises money for causes in the community, like scholarships.

Members of the Legion also will take part in classes and camps to teach kids flag etiquette.

“We have a great big giant flag with 48 stars on it, so it’s really old,” he said. “The kids actually have to wear flags when they touch it because we’re protective of that flag.”

Fruland has noticed a change in the respect veterans receive since the days he got out of the service. In 1978, when he got out of the Marines, no one really made an effort to thank him for his serivce.

“Nobody really welcomed me home,” he said. “Now there is a better perception of veterans. Everywhere we go they say ‘Thank you for your service.’ When we go to the football game, practically the whole team runs by and shakes our hand.”