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History of the CHAPTER 1 |
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The American Legion in France |
| Some years before the great world war, Arthur
Hoffman, editor of Adventure, organized a traveller's club
which he called an "American Legion". That was long before the
fateful day of August, 1914, when the news of impending war flashed
around the globe, and long before four and a half million young
Americans donned the khaki and blue and went forth to fight for
their country. Little did that editor then realize that he was
to coin a name for a great organization of world ware veterans; an
organization which was destined to become on of the largest and most
powerful societies in America; an organization that was to play an
important part in the history of a great nation. For really and truly these four and a half million stalwart sons of the great western Democracy were an American Legion. So it must have seemed to those discouraged peoples of Europe who for four long years had been holding back the enemy to preserve their civilization. What a thrill it must have given those weary comrades of our Allies when they saw the never-ending stream of khaki begin to por out on the greatliners and make its way to the battlefields! How it must have recalled to their minds the centuries long past when Roman legions swept through Europe! But these former legions had come with selfish ambitions and with the lust of power driving them forward; here came a legion urged on only the the high ideals of a great democratic nation, desiring to preserve civilization rather than destroy it. What better name could the American world war veterans have selected for their organization than "The American Legion"? And thus when a group of officers met at the Allied Officers' Club, Rue Faubourg St. Honore, Paris, France, on the evening of February 16, 1919, a name was ready for the society which they were to form. THese soldiers had gathered at the French capital to discuss ways and means for bettering conditions of the army in France, at the direction of Great Headquarters at Chaumont. After the discussion of the problem before them, the conversation turned to the possibilities of organizing a veterans' society. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt, Colonel Franklin D'Olier, Colonel Eric Fisher Wood, Colonel Bennett C. Clarke and others began to turn the matter in their minds and to visualize the great need for and possibilities of such an organization. They realized that very soon the millions of fighters would be demobilized and would return to the various stations of civil life from whence they had come. For a short time, perhaps, these war-weary fighters would want to forget their military experiences, to close their eyes upon those long months that had oftentimes seared their very souls. But it would not be for long. Something was born in those dark days of hardship and privation that they could not forget--something that would increase as the years went by. This mysterious force would stir within them and take them back to the old days of war service just as it had taken the veterans of the Civil War. They would want to gather around the old camp fires again and recount the experiences of the past. The spirit of comradeship would be the mysterious force that would stir within them and draw them together again. Many of these fighters might not realize, perhaps, for many months what this comradeship was to mean to them, or how much pride they would come to take in their military service, but they would eventually. Would not history repeat itself and world war veterans follow in the footsteps of those noble patriots of the great Grand Army of the Republic? And if they did, would not they want to be members of a veterans' organization that would offer them the opportunity to renew old friendships and dwell in reminiscences? To be continued.... |