The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help war-time veteran’s organization. The American Legion is a community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members – men and woman – nearly 15,000 American Legion Posts worldwide. These Posts are organized into 55 Departments – one each for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines. Our local Post 291 was founded in 1924 by a group a group of thirty World War I veterans who were residents of the Newport Harbor area. See History on left hand navigation bar. Photo above is local Post 291's headquarter facility.
The American Legion’s national headquarters is in Indianapolis, Indiana, (see photo left) with additional offices in Washington, DC. (See photo below, right). In addition thousands of volunteers serving in leadership and program implementation capacities in local communities to the Legion’s standing national commissions and committees, the national organization has a regular full-time staff of about 300 employees.
On the Department level (California) located in San Francisco, the Department of California has a full-time staff of about a dozen people along with the Department Commander and Adjutant. The next level down would be Area; we are part of the 5th Area which encompasses just about all of Southern California from Bakersfield south. The 5th Area is headed up by a Department Vice-Commander elected during the annual Department convention. The next level would be District of which we here at 291 are part of the 29th District which takes in all of Orange County. This segment of the Legion is headed up by a Commander elected by the Posts that make up the District. There are 25 American Legion Posts in the 29th District including Post 291.
PREAMBLE TO THE CONSTITUTION
OF THE AMERICAN LEGION
For God and Country we associate ourselves together for the following purposes:
To uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, to maintain law and order; to foster and perpetuate a one hundred percent Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the great wars; to inculcate a sense of individual obligation to the community, state and nation; to combat the autocracy of both the classes and the masses; to make right the master of might; to promote peace and goodwill on earth; to safeguard and transmit to posterity the principles of justice, freedom and democracy; to consecrate and sanctify our comradeship by our devotion to mutual helpfulness.
