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Trumbull 40 & 8 to celebrate parent group's 95th anniversary
WARREN
Trumbull County Voiture (chapter) 1182 of The Forty & Eight, a veterans group with its roots in World War I France, is celebrating the national organization’s 95th anniversary this week.
Sunday was Forty & Eight’s official birthday, but the Trumbull County chapter, which has about 41 members, moved the local celebration to today to coincide with its regular meeting, said William Conrad of Howland, the unit’s Chef de Gare (commander).
Conrad said the group will have its regular meeting, which is open to members only, at 7 p.m., and family and friends and the public will be invited to the birthday celebration beginning at 8 p.m., which will include a ceremony and a cake.
The Forty & Eight group meets at the Ali Baba Grotto at 760 Perkins-Jones Road NE in Warren.
Conrad said The Forty & Eight is the most fun of any veterans organization of which he is a member, and it supports several worthy causes.
The Forty & Eight was formed in March 1920 by members of the newly formed American Legion. The Forty & Eight name refers to how many men, 40, or how many horses, 8, that could fit into a boxcar of the French railways of that time.
The boxcar, which carried American doughboys to the front during the war, was chosen as the symbolic heart of The Forty & Eight and the French/railroad theme was incorporated in the officer titles and organizational functions of the La Societe des Quarente Hommes et Huit Chevaux (The Society of Forty Men and Eight Horses), according to its website, fortyandeight.org.
Its members are called Voyageurs Militaire (military travelers) and candidates for membership, by invitation only, are called Prisonniers de Guerre (Prisoners of War).
Originally, The Forty & Eight was limited to American Legion members. But in 1959-60, it severed ties with the legion, and in 2008 opened membership to any honorably discharged veteran or anyone on active duty. In 1973-74, a constitutional amendment was adopted that prohibits any Voiture (local chapter) from restricting its membership by race.
The Forty & Eight has had two presidents as members, Harry S. Truman and Gerald R. Ford, said Frank W. Kronen, public relations officer for the Ohio Department of The Forty & Eight.
Among charities and projects supported by The Forty & Eight are nurse training, children’s projects, Americanism and The Carville Star, a publication that disseminates information regarding research into Hansen’s Disease (leprosy) taking place in Baton Rouge, La.
Conrad, 69, is the Grande Garde du La Porte (sergeant at arms) of the Ohio Forty & Eight and in line to become the organization’s state Chef de Gare (commander). He is also a member of the organization’s Ninth District Sous Cheminot (executive board).
James Campbell of Howland, The Forty & Eight Trumbull County Chapter’s correspondent (secretary), is first vice commander of the American Legion Department of Ohio.
Part of a longtime military family with ancestors and relatives serving in conflicts starting in the Revolutionary War, including several in the Navy and Marine Corps during World War II and since, Conrad enlisted in the Navy Reserve in 1963 and was deployed on active duty in 1965-66 during the Vietnam War aboard a World War II class destroyer.
He worked 30 years at Packard Electric; graduated from Kent State University; is a member St. Mary Catholic Church in Warren and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and is a 32nd Degree Mason.
He and his wife, Deborah, have six children, 12 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.