Marine vet rebuilt Harvard Legion membership, brought back July 4th parade, cleans up cemetery

Joseph McLachlan was barely into his second year of college and “needed a change” when he met with a U.S. Marine Corps recruiter.“I dropped out of college, was on the outs with my parents, so I took the chance with the Marines,” recalled McLachlan, now 61 and commander of Harvard American Legion Post 265. Did he regret it?“If I had to do it over again, I would do every moment of it,” he said. “It changed my life. It saved my life.”McLachlan also is a member of the Woodstock Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5040 and the McHenry County Marine Corps League Detachment 1009. He comes from a long line of military men, including his brother, uncles and grandfather who was taken captive by the Germans during World War II.Rick Prescott also is a Marine Corps veteran and is commandant of the local Marine Corps League detachment. He described McLachlan as an “outstanding human being” and ”an influential veteran." He serves his community and saved the Harvard Legion when it was in “crisis” and “about