57 years of military service

Longtime American Legion commander Fink takes a step back

A changing of the guard will take place Tuesday at the Lovell Fire Hall as longtime commander of Robert Boyd Stewart American Legion Post 11 Rich Fink turns the reins of the veterans organization over to Nicolle Laffin.

Fink has been the commander of the Legion post since 2012, organizing and leading countless military graveside services and special programs honoring veterans.

His dedication to the American Legion stemmed from his own long career in the Wyoming Army National Guard. A 1967 graduate of Lovell High School, he joined the Guard in 1968, first training and serving in the 2-300th Field Artillery and then switching to OMS-1 (Organizational Maintenance Shop One), the maintenance division of the Lovell Guard, in 1973.

After 20 years, he went to Warrant Officer Candidate School in Aberdeen, Maryland, and already had so much experience in the field that he challenged the technical certification course, which would have kept him in Maryland for six more months. A board at the school questioned him for 30-45 minutes and took into consideration his 20 years of experience. The board certified him, and he was able to skip the six-month course. He received his pins in October of 1988.

“That really made me feel good,” Fink said in an interview last week.

Fink served as a warrant officer for 16 more years, retiring in 2004, and he worked for Big Horn County as an assistant to the county commissioners and also worked in emergency management. He then returned to his former post as a civilian in 2008 when the local Guard unit was deployed to the Middle East.

Taking command

One day in 2011 two veterans – Wes Meeker and Don Dover – walked into his office and said, “We’re getting old. We can’t do the firing squad and the color guard and all that stuff. So we’ve decided you’re going to take it over,” Fink recalled. “I stuttered, and they said, ‘No, you’re not getting away. You’re going to do it.’ And I’d known those guys forever, and I’d been involved with some of this.

“I think about them every time I go to do some of this stuff, think about them talking me into it. They had me cornered.”

So Fink took over the military funerals and special programs, then was named commander in around 2012, he said. Fink had been involved in the funerals previously when the National Guard performed the services, but then the task switched to the local American Legion and VFW posts.

“The funeral detail was probably the one that I was proudest of, because I’d seen veterans, including my dad, that had the military funerals, and I always figured anybody that served deserved a military funeral. They just deserved military honors.

“So that’s how I got into it. It just kept growing from there. I took over as commander. We started picking things up and having meetings again, because we hadn’t had meetings in, I don’t know, probably at least 10 years. So we started having monthly meetings, and we’ve had them ever since.”

Fink said he was initially inspired to join the American Legion around 2000 when a group of veterans and civic leaders planned and brought to fruition the Downtown Veterans Park, noting that he got to be around veterans during the planning phase. Then as many of the leaders began passing on, he knew it was his turn, entreaties by Dover and Meeker notwithstanding.

Organizing the color guard and rifle squad for funerals and the services on Memorial Day and Veterans Day can be an arduous task, Fink noted, as it has required calling a list of volunteers to see if they’re available. Only in recent years did a more efficient email list come into being.

Fink said the Legion post handles around 10 to 15 funerals every year, plus Memorial Day services in Lovell, Byron and Cowley and the Veterans Day programs at the high schools and senior citizens center, plus a Veterans Day breakfast. In recent years the Legion added a flag retirement ceremony on Flag Day, June 14.

I guess what we’ve tried to do is get involved in the community,” Fink said. “There’s so many veterans here, and I just wish we could get more of them to step up, become involved in the programs.”

A few years ago Fink contracted COVID and spent 59 days in the hospital. That set him back, and now at age 76, he doesn’t get around like he used to and decided it’s time for a change.

“I’ve been involved in military stuff since 1968 when I joined. Just lately, it got to the point where we need new blood. We need to up it a little, so we need new blood. And I’m getting old enough that I need to step back. I want to step back.

“I found somebody who’s very energetic in Nicolle Laffin.”

Laffin, as the new commander, will ramp things up, Fink said, like the National Guard speech contest that her son Riley won last year, advancing to Nationals.

Fink said there are about 30 members of the American Legion Post, and some 12 to 15 are active.

“A lot of those guys are old, some older than me. I feel bad when it’s a cold day (for a funeral), you know,” he said.

Fink will still be in the leadership as the vice commander, he said, with Stuart Morthole as the adjutant, Bruce Wolsey as the finance officer and Jim Thomas as the chaplain. Fink will continue to organize the color guard and rifle squad for funerals, he said.

Pride in service

Fink said he’s proud of his long service in the military and to veterans.

“The military is the best thing that could have ever happened to me,” he said. “I had just got married, and I needed something to shape me up a little. Over the years you just get to where it’s family. You know those people. You’re proud to be there. And then you meet the veterans that served before us. And man, what a group. I don’t know how many of the conventions for the 2-300th AFA I cooked for, making ribs and stuff. I traveled around, and it just makes me proud to belong to the organizations.

“I just I love the guys, the friendships you develop and the camaraderie. It just sticks with you forever. So I just wish more people would step up. I thank those veterans that served. We take care of them, because they gave up a lot and they’re still doing it today. The guys that deploy, man, we should be so proud of them. That’s a tough life. They get home, and they’re here between three and five years, and they go again.”

Fink figures there are 700 to 1,000 veterans living in North Big Horn County, and he said Lovell is known as one of the most patriotic communities in Wyoming, but the Guard unit is moving to Sheridan leaving the Big Horn Basin without a National Guard presence.

“We’re going to miss it,” Fink said, but as long as people like him are around, the many veterans will always be respected and honored. He’ll see to it.