Membership is your job and mine
People are always trying to write The American Legion’s obituary.
The theory goes that as World War II, Korean War and Vietnam War veterans pass away, the Legion and other veterans service organizations will die with them. But history and reality prove otherwise. The Legion is not an antiquated fraternal group, fixed to one era and place. Quite the opposite. Who we are and what we do have been inextricably woven into the fabric of American life for nearly 100 years.
On Capitol Hill, where we succeeded in getting Congress to pass the GI Bill and acknowledge the link between Agent Orange and veterans’ health problems, the Legion is fighting as hard as ever for today’s servicemembers – and tomorrow’s, too. We championed the Post-9/11 GI Bill and support modifications to strengthen it. When politicians suggest the federal government retreat into privatization of veterans health care, we’re there to argue that nothing can replace a robust and properly funded VA. We’re pushing for appeals modernization so that 450,000 veterans can get answers on their benefits claims. We aggressively pursue further study of alternative treatments for PTSD and TBI.
Across the country, thousands of our posts are pillars of their cities and towns. We teach children to respect the U.S. flag and provide color guards for funerals and community events. We sponsor baseball teams and Boy Scout troops. We connect veterans and their families to Temporary Financial Assistance (TFA) in difficult times or a National Emergency Fund grant after a natural disaster. We’re everywhere.
I don’t see an America without an American Legion. For veterans eager to continue serving, our camaraderie and array of programs are second to none. But if we don’t grow our membership, the Legion’s influence will be greatly diminished. A smaller Legion means a smaller veterans’ footprint nationwide, fewer opportunities to mentor youth in citizenship and patriotism, and a voice in D.C. that’s harder to hear.
In the summer of 1989, the Legion was 3,013,189 members strong. That was before the Gulf War, 9/11, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Our numbers should be going up, not down, as a new generation of veterans flows into our communities.
The doughboys who established the Legion in 1919 recruited 843,016 members by the end of the organization’s first year. They did it without the Internet, TV, radio or phones. They had limited transportation and no interstate highways. Yet their message spread like wildfire: “Join up!” They didn’t care about gender, ethnicity or the cost of membership. All they cared about was the price they’d paid to be eligible for membership.
We, too, must make it our mission to sign up every eligible veteran we find – not necessarily for reward or recognition, but because they’ve earned the privilege to be part of our family. They need the fellowship of those who know where they’ve been and what they’ve sacrificed. My challenge to every Legionnaire is to recruit one new member this year.
It’s up to us to leave our Legion bigger and better than we found it, and to hand its great responsibility and purpose off to a new generation that, first and foremost, must be asked to join.