KING — The veterans at the local American Legion are often jesting with each other (especially between different military branches), so it’s no wonder that they got member Ron Shouse good by being serious.
Post 290 named Shouse the “Legionnaire of the Year” at their July meeting.
“I don’t think he expected it,” said Post Commander Ed Ballard. “He acted kind of surprised, and it’s hard to get one over on him.”
Shouse, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, was indeed not expecting any award.
“Everybody’s usually picking at me to start with; I figured it was another ‘joke on Shouse’ type thing,” he said with a laugh.
“It’s flattering, to be quite honest,” Shouse said. “I couldn’t quite get over the fact that they thought enough of me to do something like that. I never thought of myself as anything great.”
The award may have been a surprise — it had been years since the post honored their top volunteer with the title — but it was no joke.
“He is quite a guy,” Ballard said. “I nominated him for ‘Legionnaire of the Year’ because all the work he does around the post. He does it, no questions...painting, repairing, fixing, building. Whatever we need on the post, he just does it.
“For lack of a better word, he just works his butt off.”
Shouse also calls bingo every Friday night at the Legion and is a leader on the post’s honor guard. The detail serves at more than 40 funerals annually.
“Everybody loves him at bingo,” Ballard said, adding that Shouse had recently traveled to Mount Airy to pick up the fair books for the upcoming Stokes County Agricultural Fair, the post’s largest fundraiser.
Clifton Kilby, finance officer for Post 290 and vice-commander of the North Carolina American Legion, said Shouse tackles an ongoing list of odd jobs.
“I would say, just about every day if you go by the post, around 8:30, 9 o’clock [a.m.] that Ron’s up there doing something,” said Kilby, noting that as he spoke, Shouse was at the Legion painting the flagpole.
“He’s put in a lot of hours,” Kilby said, “a lot more hours than anybody else.”
That fact was not lost on the post membership, and they wanted to show their appreciation.
“I said, ‘well, we haven’t had a Legionnaire of the Year in a while, and it sounds like that’s what you all are talking about,’” Kilby said.
In addition to acknowledging the efforts of a dedicated volunteer, reinstating the award is part of a successful effort to build engagement. The local Legionnaire of the Year is eligible to win at the state and national levels.
“We’re trying to make the post a little bit bigger now and better than what it has been in the past,” Shouse said. “We’re trying to dress it up and make it appealing to the younger generation.”
Shouse doesn’t seek out the attention brought by the award, but if it helps the post it’s another job he’s willing to do.
He also downplays his military service.
Shouse joined the Marines in 1966 as a senior at North Forsyth High School.
“Six months after I went in, I was walking the swamps in Vietnam,” Shouse said. He was 18.
“I got shot at a couple of times over there, so that and 50 cents will buy you a cup of coffee somewhere,” he said. “I didn’t feel like it was anything fantastic then; I don’t feel like what I’ve done is anything great now. I was just lucky enough to do it.”
It turns out being “shot at a couple of times” included fighting in the Battle of Khe Sahn.
The official U.S. Marine Corps website provides a refresher on that battle’s significance:
“In early 1968, Khe Sanh Combat Base gained world-wide attention as the roughly 6,000 Marines defending the base were encircled and besieged by three North Vietnamese Army regiments of about 20,000 troops. For 77 days, the Marines and their South Vietnamese counterparts, with support from an element of U.S. Army soldiers and U.S. Air Force bombers, would endure one of the longest and bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.”
Shouse was an artilleryman supporting infantry companies.
“That was my job, and I did what I had to do. And that’s what I’m doing over here right now,” he said of his volunteer work at the Legion, which at the time of the interview, consisted of changing a battery in a tractor, moving vehicles and generally helping prepare the barn for a youth event the following day.
“I see some things that need to be done, and I’m just dumb enough to tell people that I know how to do it. So here I am,” he said with a smile.
Shouse’s Marine service ended in 1970. After retiring from Stroh’s Brewing Co. in 2000, he dedicated his life to volunteering, helping spearhead the construction of the Veterans Memorial in Tobaccoville and eventually becoming active in Post 290.
“I feel better for it,” said Shouse. “Maybe that’s the reason the good Lord saw fit to let me walk out of some places in Vietnam that I shouldn’t have.
The veteran lives in unincorporated Forsyth County near Tobaccoville. His wife, Lynn Shouse, is active with the Legion Auxiliary and serves as assistant fair manager.
(“She works her butt off,” Ballard said.)
Shouse is proud of his daughters and grandkids and, while genuinely appreciative of the award, is not much for the acclaim.
“I just enjoy helping people as much as I can, and I don’t need any kind of accolade for doing something like that.”
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