LEGION HISTORY

The American Legion was founded in 1919 by veterans returning from Europe after World War I  and was chartered by Congress in the same year as a patriotic, war-time veterans organization, devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and also has offices in Washington D.C.  It is a not-for-profit community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members, men and women, in nearly 15,000 American Legion posts worldwide.  Paris Post #1 is one of those posts. Attendees at the First American Legion Caucus in Paris in March 1919 Plaque at Site of First American Legion Caucus in Paris      The American Legion’s Post Officers Guide recounts the organization’s founding: "A group of twenty officers who served in the American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) in France in World War I is credited with planning the Legion. A.E.F. Headquarters asked these officers to suggest ideas on how to improve troop morale. One officer, Lieutenant Colonel Theodore (Ted) Roosevelt, Jr., proposed an organization of veterans. In 1919, this group formed a temporary committee and selected several hundred officers who had the confidence and respect of the whole army. When the first organization meeting took place in Paris in March, 1919, about 1,000 officers and enlisted men attended. The meeting, known as the Paris Caucus, adopted a temporary constitution and the name “The American Legion”. It also elected an executive committee to complete the organization’s work. It considered each soldier of the A.E.F. a member of the Legion. The executive committee named a subcommittee to organize veterans at home in the U.S. The Legion held a second organizing caucus in St. Louis, Missouri, in May 1919.”