104th Anniversary of the American Legion

March 15, 2023, marks the 104th anniversary of the founding of The American Legion and Auxiliary which was chartered in Congress as a patriotic Veterans organization.

What started as a caucus of war-weary Veterans of World War I in Paris, France quickly blossomed into one of the most powerful advocate organizations for improving the lives of veterans as well as active-duty military and their families.

Congress chartered The American Legion on September 16, 1919, and in November 1919, the first Legion convention convened in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In August of 1921, The Legion's advocacy efforts resulted in the creation of the U.S. Veterans Bureau, the forerunner of the Veterans Administration.

During World War II, The Legion quickly saw the need to expand Veterans benefits to cope with the needs of the more than 16 million Americans that served in the War. On December 15, 1943, Past National Commander Harry W. Colmery started to write in longhand, on Mayflower Hotel Stationary in Washington, the first draft of what later became the "G.I. Bill of Rights which was considered The Legion's single greatest legislative achievement.

On June 22, 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the original G.I. Bill, or Serviceman's Readjustment Act which ushered in monumental changes in U.S. society. Higher education became democratized after 8 million veterans went to school on the G.I. Bill, got better jobs, bought houses in the suburbs, and raised families.

Throughout the decades The American Legion and its Auxiliary continued its advocacy which resulted in many advances including:
• 1983 - The Legion announced its sponsorship of an independent study on the effects of Agent Orange on Viet Nam War Veterans.
• 1989 - The Veterans Administration is elevated to Cabinet- Level status as the Department of Veterans Affairs.
• 1989 - The long-standing objective of The Legion to improve adjudication procedures for Veterans was achieved when the U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals became operational.
• 1990 - The Legion created the Family Support Network to assist families of servicemembers deployed for Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the Middle East. Today FSN continues to assist families affected by military activation and deployment.
• 2008 President George W. Bush signed into law the Post 9/11 Veterans Assistance Act providing substantially better education benefits.

Today, The American Legion and its Auxiliary has over 2 Million members and more than 12,000 posts in communities across the United States and is the nation's largest wartime veterans service organization.