Photographs, newspaper clippings, patches and uniforms line every available wall, table or corner in the American Legion post in Shamokin, accompanied by handwritten signs.
They tell the story of Shamokin’s military history as far back as the Civil War. Roger Alleman began gathering artifacts of local soldiers from garages, attics and basements when he returned from the Vietnam War.
“You go into another post and they’ll have four or five items on display,” he said. “Here we’re talking thousands…and it all means something.”
Alleman, the legion’s adjutant, started the collection with his own patches, photos and uniforms from his time in Vietnam. Soon, he started gathering things from friends and family, like his uncles who he knew saved everything, and others from Shamokin who were in Vietnam with him.
“They always brought this stuff to me,” he said. “It kept on building and my wife was like ‘where are we going to put it?’”
Stephen Miller, commander of the American Legion Post 73, thinks theirs might be one of the largest collections of military memorabilia in the state. But he worries what will become of it as membership in the legion declines.
“We don’t have enough members to run the place…it could get turned over to another legion, and they would take what we have and put it where they’re from,” he said. “We don’t want that to happen. You want to get younger members in here to keep it going for our area, because most of the people are from our area.”
Notes handwritten by Alleman under the rows of photos and shadow boxes of artifacts detail the connections to Shamokin.
In one room, Alleman hangs newspaper clippings - obituaries, mostly, pinned beneath hats from each branch of military service. Alleman says he tries to memorialize every Shamokin veteran he sees.
The other legion members call Alleman the historian, and as he walks through the collection, he hardly glances at those notes before launching into the story behind a photograph.
For legion member Raymond Frederick, another Vietnam veteran, seeing items from other Vietnam veterans on display feels like overdue recognition for their service.
“Troops today, when they come home, they get recognized,” he said. “We got cursed.”
Miller says right now, they’re trying to get the word out about the collection and make it as accessible as possible for anyone who would like to see it. They’re fundraising to install a stairlift to help older or disabled veterans and others get up the steep, marble staircase that leads to the museum.
“We’re going to have to get a lot more younger people involved because they have newer ideas,” he said. “And they have more of a collection to add onto what we do, like Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Alleman said he’ll keep adding to the collection for as long as he can. No item is too small or seemingly insignificant.
“It’s not junk,” he says. “It’s history.”
