August 11, 2016 at 4:55 p.m.
Post adjutant to be Grand Marshal
Post adjutant to be Grand Marshal
“(Chisago) is a great place,” he said during a recent chat at his home overlooking Little Green Lake. “I don’t think you’d find a better community where people know each other and help each other.”
Many of Ekstrand’s fellow residents would know him as a U.S. Army veteran who has been an active leader with American Legion Post 272 since 1993. He has served as his post’s finance officer for most of his time with the group, and in recent years he also accepted the title of post adjutant. Among his duties; for local services every Memorial Day he reads aloud the names of all deceased veterans whose remains are buried at Chisago Memorial Park and the South and West Green Lake cemeteries.
Post members honor veterans by placing flags at their gravesites before Memorial Day, and they host a Chisago County veterans service on the Sunday of that weekend in Lindstrom’s Memorial Park.
Post 272 has included about 60 member veterans steadily throughout Ekstrand’s years of Legion activities, he says, and 20 of the current members have participated with their post’s color guard. They display the American and POW-MIA flags while marching in four area town parades each year (Chisago City, Lindstrom, Shafer and Scandia), and in Chisago City they host an annual Patriot Day parade and program each September 11, in a tradition started in 2002.
The color guard presents military honors at area funerals for fellow veterans throughout the year, and the group also marches with the flags before varsity football games at Chisago Lakes High School.
Ekstrand spent his youth in Northeast Minneapolis, and following high school he enlisted in the Army after his father, Arnie, and five uncles had served in the military before him.
It was uncommon for young men to voluntarily enlist for service when Ekstrand joined the Army, in 1965, as the nation’s involvement in the Vietnam War was strong shirtly after it had begun in 1963. “I just thought it was the thing to do,” Ekstrand said of his enlistment.
He completed his basic training where his father had also started his service, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and the younger Ekstrand proceeded to train as a photo lab technician at an Army base in New Jersey. He fulfilled assignments in California and back in New Jersey before a deployment to Vietnam with a photography unit in late 1967.
Ekstrand spent most of his time in Vietnam working in a photo lab, but he did go on one shoot field assignment there before his discharge from the Army in October 1968. He went on to use his photo lab skills in working for three different printing companies before his retirement from the industry in 2001. He then worked as a real estate agent until 2010, when he retired for good to have more time for family and fishing.
Ekstrand and his wife, Mary (a native of South Minneapolis), had their wedding in February 1969 and they lived in Fridley for 10 years before buying their lake lot in Chisago City. Their two daughters, Jackie and Julie, were both in grade school at the time of the family’s move. “They got a great education here,” Ekstrand said. “The school district is super.” The Ekstrands have a total of five grandchildren (Jackie’s family lives in Roseville, and Julie’s family is in Sauk Rapids), and the Ekstrands enjoy watching and supporting their grandkids in arts and sports activities.
During some of his extra free time Ekstrand volunteers with a veteran hospice program through Fairview Health Services, where he visits the homes of three other veterans each week, usually for an hour at a time. The other veterans with whom he makes those connections usually have illnesses from which they are not expected to live for more than another six months.
Ekstrand notes that he can always connect with those other veterans due to their shared history of military service, but he typically doesn’t start an hour’s talk with a focus on the military. Instead, he and the other veterans often will reflect on their careers, sports or other interests.
“Once you connect with somebody on one or two points, you can really have a great conversation,” Ekstrand said.
He adds there is a need for other able veterans to volunteer in the Fairview program. A volunteer does not need to take three assignments. “It’s as little as an hour a week,” Ekstrand said. “If you have an hour a week to visit, the veterans really appreciate it.”
For more about the Fairview program, call 651-257-8850.
Ekstrand says there is always room for more member veterans in American Legion Post 272. “We have a busy post. I love it,” he said.
He notes that the post supports some of its work in the community by hosting two bingo events each year, awarding hams as prizes in the spring and then turkeys in the fall (mark your calendars for next Nov. 19). However, Post 272 has received much aid also from the Chisago City Fire Relief Association, which raises funds through pull tab gaming at area businesses. Ekstrand says his post has new Legion uniforms due to support from the city firefighters. Post 272 normally holds meetings 7 p.m. on the final Thursday of each month, at the Chisago City Community Center.
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