OPINION:
I have to wonder why the growing footprint of American Legion posts on college campuses throughout the country — chartered and operated by the newest generation of war veterans — was not examined more thoroughly in “Younger veterans bypass VFW, American Legion for service, fitness groups” (Web, Oct. 19).
These Legion posts are emerging because they do so much to help student veterans and their families; one such post even helped to change a state law to make tuition rates fairer to those who have served our nation.
The article failed to mention American Legion National Emergency Fund collaborations with Team Rubicon at several disaster sites over the years. The Legion is working with several post-Sept. 11, 2011, veterans groups right now, providing leadership on advisory councils in Southern California to better connect veterans with services available to them.
The American Legion is indeed a service-oriented organization. Last year alone, it hosted or sponsored more than 1,000 job fairs for veterans nationwide. American Legion service officers are now working on the VA claims of more than 700,000 veterans of all ages and fighting every day in Washington to protect VA benefits. Over the past four months, the Legion conducted a dozen Veterans Crisis Command Centers across the nation in the aftermath of an all-out meltdown of trust between veterans and the VA (which is only now beginning to heal, thanks to changes demanded by The American Legion).
At these crisis centers, the American Legion has provided face-to-face, firsthand assistance to more than 3,000 veterans and their families. It has also gotten the nearly $1 million in retroactive compensation that had been delayed (and thus denied) to veterans and their families. These centers will continue to operate into 2015 because they are effective and relevant to veterans, particularly those veterans leaving the service and coming home from war today and in months to come (about 1.5 million people).
Much was missing in this article’s portrayal of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). I can tell you what would be missing from the fabric of our nation if not for the American Legion and VFW. Missing would be the Department of Veterans Affairs, the GI bill, livable wages for military personnel, recognition that veterans were poisoned by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and relevant education benefits built to serve the 21st-century student veteran. Also missing would be national and government awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder, millions of community volunteers who save the VA tens of millions of dollars in staffing and raise millions of dollars in donations for veterans health care facilities. Missing would be tens of thousands of youth programs, from baseball to Junior ROTC, and from Boys State to scholarships for the children of service members who have given their lives for our country since Sept. 11, 2011.
MICHAEL HELM
National commander
The American Legion
Washington
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