Saint-Mihiel, France, is a long way from Van Buren, Arkansas, both in miles and culture, but thanks to a simple white cross standing a post, the unlikely connection between the two places remains steadfast.
The marker denotes the final resting place of Robert Jack, a River Valley farm kid turned World War I casualty, who was felled in battle.
“When everybody was signing up for the draft, they all went down to Camp Beard, Louisiana,” says Matthew Hicks, commander of Robert Jack VFW Post 1322 in Van Buren. “Six months prior to everyone else leaving, they had what they call the June auto replacement draft and Robert Jack was one of the volunteers that wanted to go, so he left six months before all of his other buddies did.”
Robert Jack was assigned to Delta Battery, 150th Field Artillery Regiment, and was killed during the waning hours of the Battle of Saint-Mihiel offensive in France in September 1918. Seven years later, his name would become synonymous with a landmark in his home state that survives to this day.
As an organization, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, or VFW, traces its roots to 1899 when veterans of the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the Philippine Insurrection of 1899 to 1902 founded local organizations to assist veterans who were otherwise left to fend for themselves to cope with injuries, illness and financial hardship related to their service in battle.
Some groups banded together to form the VFW, with the first chapters established in Ohio, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. Local Arkansas veterans followed suit, including in Van Buren, where vets from the Spanish-American War and World War I formed a post in Robert Jack’s name.
“Our post was founded in February of 1925, and according to some of the documents I found and newspaper clips and things, we were the third post in the state, only by twenty-four hours,” Matthew says. “There was a post formed in Little Rock, and of course, that post is no longer with us. Then the second post that was formed in the state, I believe, up in Prairie Grove, and that post has closed. So, even though we were the third one in 1925, we managed to actually be the oldest surviving post in the state.”
Now on the brink of its centennial anniversary, Robert Jack VFW Post 1322 remains unique for reasons beyond mere longevity. Unlike many other VFWs, the post doesn’t serve alcohol, which helps foster a family-friendly atmosphere. The group is as dedicated to the community in its programming as it is to the needs of its members, sponsoring patriotic and educational events for youth, clean-ups around the community, and other events promoting civic pride. Matthew attributes these efforts to upping the organization’s visibility and contributing to its survival, especially given the membership eligibility for VFWs, which is narrower than other groups.
“Membership is limited to individuals who have served honorably in a conflict or a combat zone area, although you don’t necessarily have to have had combat service,” he says. “We also have an auxiliary comprised of the family members of veterans eligible to join the VFW. Folks who like what we’re doing come to us, but they may not be eligible to join; we try to help them research their family history. If they’ve got family that may have served in a combat zone, that will allow them to join our post in the VFW Auxiliary.”
Matthew, who actively served in the Army from 1994 to 2004 and was deployed to Afghanistan, continues to serve as a medic in the Arkansas National Guard. He first got interested in the VFW in 2004 while living in Carroll County, but family obligations kept him from being active. Moving to Van Buren in 2009, he discovered Post 1322 and joined in 2011, drawn by a desire to serve the community and his fellow veterans.
“The VFW allows us to continue to serve in different capacities,” he says. “Several years ago, my wife and I started hiking for mental health because when we first got married, we were both broke, and we were just looking for some fun, easy things to do. We’d go hiking and it was good for me as far as getting things out of my head as we walked around. We thought, let’s try this through the post, and we started inviting our friends. Now, it’s turned into a monthly event, weather permitting, and we’ll take anybody who wants to hike a trail.”
Like most of the organization’s activities, the programming serves double duty both on the face of it and as a continued series of touch points between veterans and their buddies to help provide assistance when needed by connecting to local resources or lending an understanding ear. The VFW was formed to address physical and emotional wounds, and that continues today in ways large and small.
“Take that little deal that my wife and I started with hiking for mental health. When we go hiking these trails, we try to make the hike manageable because you’re not required to stay with the group. It’s an on-your-own thing. So, if you want to sit and talk to your friends, just look around, or get into or out of your head, that’s what it was designed for.
“And then, of course, when we have new veterans in the area, we’ll introduce them to the Fort Smith VA and put them in contact with the resources to help get into counseling if needed. Or, we’ll put them in contact with our county veteran service officer, who will help initiate their paperwork with the VA, so they can get services. If you will, it’s a circle by which we continue to try to help all these folks that come in.”
Matthew closed another circle recently when he visited Robert Jack’s gravesite in France. He describes the experience as a powerful one.
“When I deployed to Germany, we were training Ukrainians,” he says. “Since we were close to Saint-Mihiel, France, I got to see Robert Jack’s grave. Our assumption is that I’m the first person from Arkansas to visit his grave since his mother came when they started the Gold Star Mother program back in the 1930s. We’re pretty sure nobody else has gone to see him since then.”
At this, Matthew paused, as if reliving in his mind the moment of visiting a brother in arms who had fallen decades before yet remains connected to his home thousands of miles away thanks to the VFW post formed in his honor.
“It’s about comradery,” Matthew says.
To learn more about Robert Jack VFW Post 1322 and its membership program, contact Matthew Hicks at Matthew.Hicks@arkansas.gov or the VFW website at vfw.org.
