The American Legion Veterans Cemetery, owned and operated by U.S.S. Tampa Post 5, the site of this year’s project.
American Legion Family members will continue a longtime tradition later this month during the 2025 National Convention in Tampa, Fla.
For more than 10 years, Legionnaires, Auxiliary members and Sons of The American Legion have performed some kind of community service project in the national convention’s host city. This year, that effort – which will take place Aug. 22 – will be assisting a local post by providing clean-up maintenance efforts at the post’s cemetery.
U.S.S. Tampa Post 5 owns and operates The American Legion Veterans Cemetery, which has more than 700 veterans buried on the grounds. The cemetery came to fruition when in 1921, American Legion Auxiliary Unit 5 President Mrs. O.N. Bie witnessed Tampa police attending to the lifeless body of a homeless World War I veteran. Not wanting to see the veteran, or any veteran, buried in a pauper’s grave, she purchased three acres of land and dedicated it for the creation of an American Legion cemetery.
According to the American Legion Department of Florida, the cemetery was at the time located on the outskirts of town, but now that area is near one of Tampa’s busiest intersections.
The cemetery’s care is overseen by the American Legion Cemetery Corp., founded in the 1970s, with a board consisting of three Legionnaires from Post 5 and three from Auxiliary Unit 5.
- Convention