American Legion Daily News Clips from National HQ           

 

By Mark C. Seavey mseavey@legion.org (and/or) William A. Proffet, WProffet@legion.org (and/or) John B. Raughter, jraughter@legion.org

 

 

Good morning, Legionnaires and veterans’ advocates, it’s Wednesday, September 20, 2023.

Today in American Legion history: 

Sept. 20, 1944: The 26th American Legion National Convention passes Resolution 138, primarily as a plan to educate and enthuse World War II veterans about the organization they are rapidly joining. Summarized as “at least two weeks” of an “intensive course of study for selected World War I and World War II Legionnaires,” the first actual American Legion College, with a class of 63, would not begin until 1946 at the national headquarters in Indianapolis. By 1954, American Legion departments are conducting their own Legion Colleges, which become the preferred method of leadership training, and the national program is suspended. Forty-five years later, national American Legion College is resurrected and continues today.

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Sept. 20, 2002: American Legion National Commander Ronald F. Conley visits the North Texas VA Medical Center in Dallas to determine the facility’s ability to meet veteran demand. He discovers that the budget there is $15 million short, parking is limited, psychological care is inadequate, construction of a new mental health facility on campus is stalled, VA sold a portion of its property to the school district and now must rent it back for parking and that while patient demand has increased 16 percent, the budget has grown only 5 percent. This is the first stop in a series of VA health-care site visits that become the national System Worth Saving program to assess the performance and limitation of federal veterans health-care facilities throughout the VA system.

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