Glenwood's Brian Ring Answers The Call As State American Legion Commander

For the first time in 70 years and only the third time in history, the Department Commander For The American Legion Of Iowa hails from Glenwood.

U.S. Air Force veteran and Harvey T. Rimel American Legion Post 141 member Brian Ring assumed his duties as state commander in July.

“They’ve been after me for awhile, a good nine years, to be state commander and I kept telling them I need to be retired in order for me to give me to them,” Ring said during an interview last week at the Glenwood post. “I retired in 2023 and I went around the state saying ‘Hi’. My wife Judy and I have been attending district conferences every year. We hit different conferences to get to know the state – to get to know the people and hear their stories.”

Ring, who spent 12-plus years serving in the Air Force as a refrigeration and air conditioning specialist and over 28 years in a civilian capacity at Offutt Air Force Base, has been a member of Glenwood’s American Legion post for 18 years. He’s held several positions locally and on the district and state level, including serving as the post commander for two years, county commander, the District 7 commander for southwest Iowa and state membership chair.

His duties as state commander are numerous. When he isn’t facilitating DEC (Department Executive Committee) meetings in Des Moines, Ring is on the road visiting Legion posts and taking in activities across the state. He logged over 1,000 miles over a recent weekend that took him from Glenwood to Camp Dodge for a Boys State meeting, back to Glenwood and then on to Fairbank for a conference, Albia for a fundraising dinner and then back home to Glenwood.

During the week, Ring usually travels alone. On weekends, he’s joined by his wife Judy, also an active Legion member.

“As we’re driving, Judy is looking on Facebook to see where (Legion) things are happening so we know where we can go,” Ring said. “It’s fun to hear a story when you go into a post I haven’t been to. They’ll give you a tour. To hear the ups and downs and different stories of how they built a post, how they upgraded their post and how they changed throughout the years. You hear the pride in their voice as they talk about it and it stays with you. It’s a growing experience to see how our state has responded throughout the years and grown.”
Iowa has 570 American Legion posts. Ring expects to visit about half of them during his tenure as state commander.

“I’m on the call of the membership,” he said. “If they have an event, they’ll send in the paperwork to the department office or I’ll see something online. If I’m out and about at an event, as we’re working our way home, we’ll stop at breakfasts and lunches at different posts if they’re having an event.”

Ring won’t have to travel far to take part in Veterans Day activities over the next week. On Saturday, he’ll attend a breakfast at the post in Council Bluffs before taking part in the city’s Veterans Day Parade. On Monday, he’ll be participating in Veterans Day activities with his home post in Glenwood.

With about 1.5 million veterans and another 500,000 auxiliary and SAL (Sons of The American Legion) members, the American Legion is the largest veterans service organization in the nation, however like other organizations of its kind, keeping membership numbers up is an ongoing challenge. Getting younger people involved is a priority.

“We’re working on ideas every day, trying to come up with ideas to draw the younger veteran into the post and get them to see that we are here for them,” Ring said. “It’s a struggle for all of us. We’ve got ad hoc committees working on this all the time.”

For many years, American Legion membership was restricted to veterans who had served during war time – World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Gulf War – but all honorably discharged veterans who served at least one day of active duty are now eligilble to join.

The American Legion was built on four pillars, Ring said – National Security, Americanism, Children and Youth and Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation.

As state commander, Ring has chosen as his motto “Veterans Helping Veterans and Youth.” He’s also chosen two specific projects to promote and support – the American Legion’s National Emergency Fund and the Department Of Iowa’s Emergency Veterans Fund. Both organizations help veterans and their families who are in need of assistance as the result of a natural disaster.

“We’ve had so many tornadoes in this area the last year,” he said. “We’ve had the floods and our 9th District above us got flooded last year. For our veterans in the Department of Iowa, we have the Iowa Emergency Veterans Fund so I’ve asked my constituents if they want to donate to those two funds for our brothers and sisters who need help in the state of Iowa.”

Ring will serve as Iowa’s American Legion commander until next July. After completion of his term, he’ll represent Iowa at the National American Legion Convention in Tampa, Fla., as the state’s past commander.

Ring is following the footsteps of Glenwood’s two previous state commanders – William Rathke in 1934 and Glenn Hamm in 1954.