Entrance Into The American Legion Essay Research

Entrance Into The American Legion Essay, Research Paper

Instructor: XXXXXXXX

College Writing

16 June 2000

The American Legion: A Right To Membership

Introduction

The United States Congress chartered the American Legion in 1919. Its purpose was to benefit veterans and their families, promote Americanism and serve the greater good of communities nationwide. First welcomed to membership were veterans returning home from the battlefields of Europe. But over the years, Congress amended the Legion’s charter so as to include those who had served in World War II, Korea and more recent conflicts.

Ineligible for American Legion membership, however, remain the many men and women who had answered our nation’s call while American military forces were not actively engaging an enemy of the United States. Serving with valor and distinction, these members of the armed forces have guarded America’s shores and protected the nation’s strategic assets at U.S. military bases across the world. They have been on the front lines of American efforts to mediate conflicts between warring factions in Europe, Asia and Africa. And they, too, have been prime targets for armed aggressors, terrorist attacks and saboteurs. The question is: have these veterans not earned the right to membership in the American Legion as well.

This essay seeks to explore whether the American Legion’s charter should be amended so as to better reflect our nation’s appreciation for those who serve in times of war and peace. Indeed, it is an issue made all the more cogent today: With increasing numbers of young Americans rejecting the armed forces as a career option, recruitment goals are not being met and the military is being forced to lower its entrance requirements. If this trend is not soon reversed, the U.S. military could be perceived as incapable of implementing our nation’s strategic policies abroad — a perception that can only encourage the most aggressive ambitions of other nations.

A Resource for Veterans

In seeking to determine whether the American Legion should open its doors to non-wartime veterans, we must begin with a look at the organization itself:

its mission, its outreach programs and, above all, the benefits today’s Legion is able to provide for a worldwide membership now approaching three million men and women.

Meeting in Paris some five months after the armistice of November 1918, delegates from combat and service units of the American Expeditionary Force resolved to found an organization that would protect the interests of veterans through the years that followed. These delegates, who no doubt had witnessed the nation’s failure to benefit Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans — and who were themselves only months removed from the battlefields of what was even then called the war to end all wars — had a special concern for the sick and disabled among their number, as well as for the widows and children of their fallen comrades. And their powerful commitment brought about the act of Congress, which established the American Legion in September 1919.

With a framework for service, the new organization quickly moved to find hospitals and other services for World War I veterans. It’s leaders championed the cause of compensation and pensions for the disabled, widows and orphans, then lobbied for a government agency specifically dedicated to veterans’ needs; and their efforts helped to establish the U.S. Veterans Administration in 1930.

In 1944, the Legion played a prominent role in the enactment of a G.I. Bill of Rights for World War II veterans, and later supported similar legislation for veterans of the Korean War. These measures would ultimately make possible college or vocational training for more than 10.5 million veterans, and provide the low-interest loans that would enable an estimated 5.6 million veterans to purchase their own homes.

As the Legion grew in both membership and influence, so, too, did its agenda. Championing the cause of patriotism, it developed educational programs, which sought to promote good citizenship. Legion social and athletic programs for youth had a goal of helping children to realize their full potential. A legislative division worked to make certain the Legion’s voice was heard in Washington. And through its nearly 15,000 local chapters worldwide, the Legion has worked to build and strengthen a sense of community through child welfare programs, educational scholarships, blood drives, crime prevention projects and other

such initiatives. Perhaps most important to veterans, however, are the special benefits which the American Legion has been able to provide its membership.

Ranging from health, financial and employment services to member discounts for travel, moving, insurance and even Internet usage, today’s American Legion

benefits America’s war veterans in countless ways, including opportunities for social activity and camaraderie at its local chapters. As such, it is understandable that non-wartime veterans might feel the pain of exclusion.

A Policy Framed By Hope

It is an unhappy fact that policies and legislation often outlive their usefulness. Within the archives of most every state and municipality are enactments dating from the 19th century and even earlier which, when brought to light by som

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