The weekend before the May Spring Meetings at National Headquarters in Indianapolis featured a meeting of the national American Legion 100th Anniversary Observance Committee. The committee, which is tasked with planning and promoting the 15-month Centennial Celebration of The American Legion in 2018-2019, is made up of department adjutants, NECmen, past and present national officers and more.
The committee drafted a resolution, passed by the National Executive Committee later that week, to make an addition to the 100th Anniversary Observance Honorary Committee, which brings together luminaries in a variety of fields, who have somehow been touched by The American Legion, to help promote the Centennial. This committee is chaired by Theodore Roosevelt IV, grandson of Legion co-founder Theodore Roosevelt Jr., and includes former Legion Baseball player and Boys State participant Tom Brokaw; Jamie Corkish, former Junior Shooting Sports champion and 2012 U.S. Olympic gold-medal winner; NBC News Vice President and American Legion post service officer Val Nicholas; and a number of others.
The latest addition to the committee is Susan Eisenhower, a granddaughter of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States, Supreme Allied Commander-Europe during World War II, and a recipient of the 1946 American Legion Distinguished Service Medal and life member of the Abilene, Kan., post. Eisenhower is an author, educator, and respected international affairs and global security expert. She serves as CEO and chairman of The Eisenhower Group, Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based consulting company, and is chairman emeritus at the Eisenhower Institute of Gettysburg College, where she served as president twice.
Plans for the Centennial Celebration continue; the national convention in Cincinnati in August will once again feature an Exhibit Hall booth and two open workshops.
