1st District Commander’s October 2024 Report

As I sit here thinking about what to write about this month’s article, all that comes to mind how great most of the 1st District posts are doing with their new officers and, I can say: Keep up the excellent job you are doing in helping to get new members in and raising money for the great causes you do.

If I offended anyone at some posts I visited, I do apologize. If I used foul langue and if you thought that I was yelling, I have a loud voice. Now to those posts that try to change the vote of the membership body who put those younger officers in to run the post and the older members to run them off or making it hard for them and they quit, that is not what The American Legion is all about. It is about helping veterans get help in Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation, National Security, Americanism, and Children and Youth.

That is why we are here, not to pick each other apart or keep score in something they did the past.

Did you know that in 1925, the percentage of veterans in the population was around 10 percent? By 1955, it was around 11 percent. By 1995, it was approximately 7 percent. In 2022 (latest available figures) it was around 6.2 percent.

Those are the veteran percentages. Here are the servicemember numbers. People confuse the two a lot: There is less than 1 percent of the population who is actively serving in the military today. There was about 10 percent of the population who served during World War II.

I know there are posts that need officers and the commander asked members to come and help him and everyone he asked to be voted in as transfer members to help fill in as officers because the post members would not step up. Also, there were a few ladies that were going to transfer over to help get their Auxiliary unit back active.

Now the Vietnam veterans talk about how tough it was when they came home and how tough it was that older veterans made it hard for them to belong. Now you are the veterans giving the younger veterans the same grief you have gotten to the younger veterans — but remember one thing. Most of the veterans coming in to the Legion are ones who have been deployed.

Also, remember, some of them want to change things too suddenly and not heed the preamble or four pillars. So there has to be a balance between giving them some leeway and keep us The American Legion. For instance, we never will stop being patriotic.