A standard, and the people who keep it.
Post #809 carries the name of General Colin L. Powell and the way he served: disciplined, unhurried, close enough to hear the problem. Two soldiers a lifetime apart, one watch that never stands down.
Honoring service. Building community. Leaving a legacy.
The day the watch was chartered.
Commander Brian Scott Smith accepts the charter of the American Legion for General Powell Post #809, in the Department of Puerto Rico. Not a name borrowed for effect: a post founded to carry General Powell's standard on the island, authorized by the Powell family.
From that moment the post is chartered, standing, and open, an official post of the largest wartime veterans organization in the country, run by veterans, for veterans, here.
- Chartered
- American Legion, Department of Puerto Rico
- Named for
- Gen. Colin L. Powell, 1937 to 2021
- Founded by
- Cmdr. Brian Scott Smith
Two soldiers. One post.
A four-star general who began as a lieutenant from a South Bronx block, and the Ranger who founded a post in his name. Their lives never crossed. Their standard is the same one, and it is the one this post keeps.
- A lieutenant from Kelly Street. Commissioned through CCNY ROTC, 1958.
- Two tours in Vietnam. Wounded, then decorated for pulling men from a burning helicopter.
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. The youngest, and the first Black officer, to hold it. Desert Storm, 1991.
- Four stars, then Secretary of State. Retired 1993. The name this post now carries.
- A young special operations captain. Commissioned through Virginia State University ROTC, 1987. Army Airborne Ranger.
- He retired an Army officer. Came up the hard way, and stayed in service after the uniform came off.
- A clinical social worker. He spends his days helping people through their worst moments, as he did in the outpatient mental health clinics of the Manhattan and Brooklyn VA hospitals.
- Founder of Post #809. He built the watch he wished more veterans had.
Two lives a lifetime apart, and one watch where they finally meet.
Brian Scott Smith.
He studied at Virginia State University and Columbia University. He served as an Army Airborne Ranger and retired as an Army officer. He previously worked in the outpatient mental health clinics at the Manhattan and Brooklyn VA hospitals. Today he works as a clinical social worker, which is the part that explains this whole post.
When General Powell Post #809 says Be The One, it is not borrowing a slogan. Its commander spends his days sitting with people at the edge. Suicide prevention is the reason he founded a post, not a poster on a wall. That is the tone here: ceremony that means something, and a hand that is actually there when a veteran needs it.
Why his name belongs in Puerto Rico.
Powell grew up on a South Bronx block that was Jamaican, African American, and Puerto Rican, all on one street. The Puerto Rican community was part of what raised him. A post that carries his name here is not a coincidence. It closes a circle: the neighbors who were there at the beginning now keep the watch that bears his name.
He believed leadership meant staying close enough to hear the problem, and that optimism is a force multiplier. That is the standard of this post. Not ceremony for its own sake. Ceremony that means something.
The Caribbean and abroad, united in service.
The post's vision reaches past one island. Veterans across the Caribbean share the same waters and, often, the same flag they served. Others carried it further still, to the places American veterans retire to, where the nearest post can be an ocean away.
- U.S. Virgin Islands
- Dominican Republic
- Puerto Rico
- Jamaica
- Panama
- Colombia
- Mexico
- Costa Rica
The roll, as it stands today.
Three seats, filled by people who had already done the work before they ever took them.
-
Brian Scott SmithCommander
The founder. U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, and a clinical social worker, which is the part that explains this whole post.
-
Michele S. JonesAdjutant
The first woman to serve as Command Sergeant Major of the United States Army Reserve, from 2002 to 2006, and the first woman in any component of the Army to hold its top enlisted post. She rose there from private. The post's records are in her hands.
-
Keenan MorelandSergeant-at-Arms
He keeps the colors and the order of the room, which at a formation is the difference between a ceremony and a gathering.
The rest of the seats fill as veterans step up to them. If you are reading this and you have carried one before, the post would like to hear from you.
The night the post was announced out loud.
Department of Puerto Rico, 103rd Annual Convention. The commander stood up in front of the department and said the post exists. This is that, whole and uncut, exactly as it happened in the room.
