The American Legion Jasper Post 20 held a dinner to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the American Legion. The Department of Illinois Sr. Vice Commander. Roy Weber spoke to the group and gave a bit of history about the Legion.
Pictured below are the Veteran’s who were in attendance at the event: [read more]
World War II Harold “Sam” Britton
Korean War John May, Dean Slack, James Weber, Clarence Vahling
Vietnam War Front Row, Left to Right, Roy Weber, Paul Burnell, William Michl, Philip Kuhl, Chris Correll, Sanford Andrews. Back Row, Howard Griffith, Bill Diel, Rick Cochran, Paul Marchini, Mark Dougherty, Don Burnell.
Desert Storm/Iraq – Roy Weber, Everett Kitchen, Daniel Jayne
Peacetime Kenny Cummins, Glenn Frichtl, Gene Schackmann
Senior Vice Commander Weber’s points of interest included:
“1919 – After World War I a group of 20 officers who served in the American Expeditionary Forces founded the Legion. One of those Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. proposed an organization of Veterans to serve veterans, service members and the community.
The American Legion grew quickly to 1 million. Today we now have 13,000 posts with over two million members worldwide.
The first meeting was in Paris 1919. The first caucus in the United States was in St. Louis in May 1919.
The National Headquarters was decided for Indianapolis, Indiana (D.C. and the west coast were not centralized and political areas were avoided).
November 1919 American Legion passed a resolution to support the Boy Scouts (Founded in 1916).
1921 – The American Legion created the Veterans Bureau (now called the Veterans Administration)
1923 – The Legion drafted a U.S. Flag Code (we now propose a Flag Protection Amendment against the desecration of our Flag.)
1925 – Created American Legion Baseball program. (82,000 youths play each year)
1935 – Created Boys State Program, Began in Springfield and now at EIU (June).
1938 – Stated National High School Oratorical Contest
1943 – Drafted GI Bill of Rights. Now we have the Reserve Bill of Rights also.
1946 – Legion funded the American Heart Association to fight heart disease.
1954 – Stated American Legion Child Welfare Foundation to assist our country’s needy children
1969 – Established the National Emergency Fund after Hurricane Camille. The fund has helped thousands of veterans affected by natural disasters such as floods, storms, and tornados etc since 1969.
1982 – American Legion was the largest contributor to build the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in D.C. (over 1 million donated)
1983 – Started independent study of the effects of Agent Orange defoliant on Vietnam Veterans
1990 – Created the Family Support Network for Desert Shield/Desert Storm Veterans families.
2001 – Created American Legacy Scholarship for the children’s college costs of the dependents of military members killed or severely wounded since the September 11, 2001 attacks.
2007 – Established the Legion Riders who today are one of the largest donors of all Legion programs.
2017 – First Female elected as a National Commander Denise Rohan. She traveled with us on our annual membership caravan in January. Very motivational speaker.” [/read]
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