In 2019 our centennial will be official, but even at 100 years old The American Legion remains an energetic force. The bese is yet to come. . . . Brett P. Reistad National Commander
Everyone is excited at a birth, a new start or a new life, and normally it starts with fear, pain, and worries, but mostly with love, care, and concern for the new life or endeavor. In business, as in life, as the years’ roll on older individuals, companies, programs, and ideas fade and the beginning is sadly forgotten or for some, never celebrated.
World War One started in 1914 and although America was not fighting President Theodore Roosevelt knew we needed to strengthen the military. The Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army, Leonard Wood, and the President started a campaign, the Preparedness Movement, a summer training school for reserve officers in Plattsburgh, New York. The Movement argued that the United States needed to immediately build up strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption was that the United States would fight sooner or later.
The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque and “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Many of the Legion’s founders had voluntarily drilled in civilian military camps before the United States entered the war. Trained in the “Preparedness Movement”, several future Legion founders were commissioned as officers in the war and discovered firsthand the nation’s deficiencies in defense, citizenship, and education. Soon after the war’s end, they also realized how poorly prepared the United States was to assist a wave of disabled and unemployed veterans who faced uncertain futures in their communities, states, and the nation. The American Legion’s emergence and rise to prominence was based on a mission to strengthen the nation through programs, services and advocacy that helped millions throughout the organization’s first century. The American Legion built its legacy with a vision to make the nation prouder, stronger, smarter, and more respectful of those who have sacrificed some, or all, in defense of the nation.
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100 year birthday
Celebrating A Birth Day
Everyone is excited at a birth, a new start or a new life, and normally it starts with fear, pain, and worries, but mostly with love, care, and concern for the new life or endeavor. In business, as in life, as the years’ roll on older individuals, companies, programs, and ideas fade and the beginning is sadly forgotten or for some, never celebrated.
World War One started in 1914 and although America was not fighting President Theodore Roosevelt knew we needed to strengthen the military. The Chief of Staff of the U. S. Army, Leonard Wood, and the President started a campaign, the Preparedness Movement, a summer training school for reserve officers in Plattsburgh, New York. The Movement argued that the United States needed to immediately build up strong naval and land forces for defensive purposes; an unspoken assumption was that the United States would fight sooner or later.
The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque and “In Flanders Fields” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Many of the Legion’s founders had voluntarily drilled in civilian military camps before the United States entered the war. Trained in the “Preparedness Movement”, several future Legion founders were commissioned as officers in the war and discovered firsthand the nation’s deficiencies in defense, citizenship, and education. Soon after the war’s end, they also realized how poorly prepared the United States was to assist a wave of disabled and unemployed veterans who faced uncertain futures in their communities, states, and the nation. The American Legion’s emergence and rise to prominence was based on a mission to strengthen the nation through programs, services and advocacy that helped millions throughout the organization’s first century. The American Legion built its legacy with a vision to make the nation prouder, stronger, smarter, and more respectful of those who have sacrificed some, or all, in defense of the nation.