During the May meeting of James O. Hall Post 19 of The American Legion, Department of Louisiana, in Jennings, 7th District Commander (oversees 35 American Legion posts in 8 parishes) A. J. Jones (left) and American Legion Department of Louisiana Commander (State Commander) Rodney Holliday (2nd from left) recognized the 5 Legion members from Post 19 who have received the state-level M. C. “Mike” Gehr Blue Cap Award. They are pictured from left to right (with the year recognized listed in parentheses): Sam Doucet (2012), John Louviere (2015), Allen Medus (2002), Darrell Landry (1999), and Glenn McFarlain (2017). The state-level Blue Cap Award is given to the Legionnaire of the Year for Louisiana among Legion members who, at the time of their selection, had not held an elected officer job above American Legion post level. Every year the 8 American Legion districts in Louisiana select a Blue Cap Award recipient from their district, and from these 8 recipients is chosen the state-level honoree. Since the Blue Cap program was initiated in 1961 there have been 464 district award recipients, and from these have been selected 57 state-level honorees. Both A. J. Jones from Post 15 in Crowley and Rodney Holliday from Post 27 in DeRidder are also state-level Blue Cap recipients.