Richardson elected new post commander

American Legion Post 24 in Whitehall has a new post commander.

Kristian Richardson was elected into the position January 7 and feels his new role is an important responsibility.

"I feel like I have an opportunity to make change in the community which I'm really excited about. One of my main goals is to bring in a new generation of military Veterans into the American Legion here in Jefferson County. There needs to be a new lifeblood in the organization if we want to be able to affect future change," he said.

A Veteran of the United States Army, Richardson joined when he was 18 and served for seven years. He spent most of his time overseas and was deployed to the War in the Balkans in both Bosnia and Kosovo.

He eventually moved to Montana with his wife and children and said he has found the state to be a very strong proponent of Veterans issues and this caused him to be more involved.

"My goals are to affect certain changes. Those changes that I want to see affected are mostly related to education for Veterans, housing for Veterans, and mental health care. Those three things are integrally tied together," he said.

In his time in Montana, Richardson has dived deeply into working with a number of Veteran service organizations across the state to try and get Veterans and active duty members into the fold of what is going on.

"So many Veterans are left out of the system once they finish their time in the service. They go on and do their own thing and never necessarily reach out to the VA or another service and try to talk about the issues that are affecting them," he said. "It's been proven that Veterans who decided to be a part of a group of other Veterans tend to have a great success rate in terms of reintegration after separation from their services. It is important to know that Montana has the highest rate of Veteran suicide in the entire United States. It's a devastating statistic. I really feel strongly that the American Legion can help reach out to the Veterans who might not have a voice with their community and try to pull them into the community, and then provide them with the resources they need to be able to live a very happy and healthy life," he said.

Another strong focus for Richardson is working with local youth through providing scholarships as well as growing interest in them to help the community through 4H, school activities, sports as well as thinking about a future opportunity for their own military service.

Above all else, Richardson said it is looking through a lens at the Veterans that live in this community and understanding things from their point of view.

"During my time as commander it will be trying to bring in a new generation of military Veterans that live here with other area service members and to get them involved...and see where we can take that," he said.

The American Legion meets the second Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. at the Community Center.

Richardson said those interested in joining can log onto the national web site, but he encourages them to attend the local meetings to interact and support other local Veterans.