December 30, 2024
Army Vet Pours Her Heart Out Serving at the American Legion in Lady Lake
By Gina Horan
Army Vet Pours Her Heart Out Serving at the American Legion in Lady Lake
Sgt. Becky Pilipow enlisted in the army in 1999 at age 18, served in Iraq in 2003-‘04, and was honorably discharged in 2007.
In 2023, right before her 42nd birthday, she realized she had a chance to return to the military.
“I found out I could reenlist at that age so I jumped at the chance,” Becky says. “I missed doing something completely different, like the adventure and travel, and let’s face it, the benefits are good for my family.”
Becky owns and operates Edible Arrangements in Oxford with her wife, Rachel Neck.
She has also found a second family through her part-time job tending bar at the American Legion, Veterans Memorial Post #347 in Lady Lake.
“Because I’m a female, most people think I’m an auxiliary member when they first meet me,” she says. “When they find out that I’m active-duty military, there is sort of an added respect and camaraderie.”
Surrounding herself with fellow vets has been a blessing. She illustrates that point with a story about when she was stationed at Fort Jackson in South Carolina during a cold spell.
“We had to march a lot so I wrote a letter to the post and asked for some thick socks,” she says. “All of the sudden, dozens of socks arrived in the mail for the entire company.”
Post #347 is home to approximately 7,000 legionnaires — including 307 women — as well as 2,700 auxiliary members and 1,000 Sons of the American Legion, which makes Lady Lake’s post the largest in the world.
Post #347 is also one of the most generous. The post provides the hall to any legionnaire to use free of charge, opens the parking lot as an emergency landing pad for helicopters and donates equipment for disabled members.
“There are dozens of great things that our post does for the community,” Becky says. “I especially admire the Honor Flight program and I hope to volunteer for that sometime.
“We just lost Jim Lyons, a WWII vet who got to go and meet the President before he passed away and that was special for all of us.”
To find out more about Post #347 visit www.florida-legion.org.
Photos: Nicole Hamel and Provided
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Gina moved to Central Florida in August 2021 from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a degree in linguistics and worked as a fashion editor, photo stylist lifestyle columnist and food writer for the Knight Ridder Newspaper Group. She also covered and photographed music festivals, fashion shows and sports throughout Northern California. In 2000, she joined KSAN radio as a morning show co-host and produced the news and sports content there for four years. She later covered travel, events and the restaurant scene for KRON-Bay TV. A veteran bartender, Gina has worked in hospitality on and off since high school. She has been with Akers Media since 2022 and hosts the Healthy Living Central Florida podcast. Her passions include travel, road trips, baseball, history books and podcasts, tasting menus and arriving in a new city without a map or guidebook.
