By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | A former commander of the Duluth American Legion has a new position—commander of the entire state of Georgia American Legion. He is Thom Mash, 63, a resident of Suwanee. There are 240 American Legion posts in Georgia, with over 52,000 members.
He has been a member of the Chattahoochee American Legion Post 251 of Duluth since 1996, and commander in 2001-2003. The post is one of the largest in Georgia, with 1,200 members. There are also American Legion posts in Gwinnett—-Buford, Lawrenceville and Snellville.
Among Mash’s past duties, besides being the Duluth post commander, has been Finance Officer and Adjutant. For 14 years he was the district adjutant, and has served in several offices of the state department. He was elected state commander at the 97th Department (state) convention in Dalton in June. He has also served at the national level on the national legislation and marketing committees.
Mash plans to concentrate his time as state commander with an emphasis on membership, an area he has concentrated on with his home Post. “When I joined the Duluth Post, we had only 250 members,” he notes. He points out that there are over 700,000 eligible Legion members in Georgia.
Mash
Mash is a native of Pontiac, Mich., and attended Indiana University on a wresting scholarship. In 1972, he enlisted in the U.S. Marines, where he received training at the IBM Computer Science School, and became a computer operator for the Marines. He was stationed at the Albany, Ga. Marine Supply Center. He continued his wrestling while in the service, and was the Marine Corps Freestyle wrestling champion at 126 pounds in 1974. He was discharged from the service in 1976 with the rank of sergeant.
The new commander began work in 1976 as a data processing operator with General Motors Pontiac division, where he served for 15 years. In 1981, he was transferred to Atlanta, working with GMAC. He started his own business, Nature Craft Deck Company, then in 1992 began to work with Abatement Technologies of Suwanee as Operations Manager, where he is now. The firm works in the air filtration business worldwide out of the Suwanee office.
Mash and his wife have three daughters, a son, and 11 grandchildren. They are members of the Duluth First United Methodist Church.
This September, it’s expected that another Georgian will be recognized in the top post of the American Legion. That will be Dale Barnett of Douglasville, who is on tap to be elected the national commander of the Legion on September 3 in Baltimore. He has served the Legion for many years and is a past Georgia commander. Mash says of Barnett’s incoming position: “We made Dale look good going in as National Commander when we were one of only two states to make an increase in membership, at 101 percent. We need to make sure he remains looking good this year as he serves us all.” Georgia was one of only two departments (of 55) that had an increase in membership.
Meanwhile, the 2015 Georgia American Legion fall conference will be held in Duluth on October 23-24 at the Sonesta Hotel. Approximately 600 Legionnaires are expected to be in attendance.
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