“It’s a shame Congress isn’t doing what it’s there to do,” Dan Dellinger said here Monday morning. PRIOR TO Dellinger’s comments, Gaylord Sanneman, Kansas commander, stressed the importance of state programs.
Dellinger, from Vienna, Va.., is national commander of the American Legion. He was at Iola American Legion Post 15 for a breakfast meeting, attended by about 30 local and state legionnaires.
Congress should concern itself with passing a budget, not shutting down government and threatening to throw the country into default on its financial obligations, Dellinger said.
“I was in Flagstaff, Ariz., two weeks ago when I got a call to come to Washington,” Dellinger recalled. When he arrived, there was a fence “in front of the World War II memorial and the gates were closed,” an outcome of the federal shutdown. “The memorial always should be open, it’s there to honor veterans.”
Memorials should be immune from politics, he continued. “Those who put on uniforms shouldn’t be pawns.”
He noted “the G.I. Bill made the United States what it is today.”
The G.I. Bill was passed by Congress in 1944 to provide a broad range of benefits for soldiers returning from World War II. By the end of 1956, about 2.2 million veterans had used the bill’s education benefits, and an additional 6.6 million for some kind of training benefits. The bill’s benefits have continued for veterans in subsequent wars and those from peace time assignments.
The American Legion, with about 2.4 million members, has a National Emergency Fund, which Dellinger adopted for his project as national commander.
“In the past year it has provided $750,000 to help veterans and their families following national disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy and the tornadoes in Oklahoma,” he said. “I want us to raise $1 million to replenish the fund,” which may be accompanied by each member contributing 50 cents. “One thing is for sure, we will have another national emergency.”
Dellinger also encouraged Post 15 members to work diligently to increase local membership.
“We have a 95-year history of helping service men and women,” he said.
The Cadet Law Academy has 50 slots open to high school juniors, Sanneman said, and 28 students competed the week-long training last year. Held at the Highway Patrol training facility in Salina, students are tutored in law enforcement techniques, which, he said, “is a good precursor for military training or a law enforcement career.”
The Kansas American Legion’s Turkey Run is a program that provides a full Thanksgiving meal for wounded soldiers and their families at Fort Riley.
“The first year we had 50 families take part and last November we had 700,” Sanneman said, with the state Legion organization providing all groceries.
He also encouraged Post 15 members to promote Kansas Boys and Girls State, which gives high school juniors hands-on training in state and local politics.
A legion of support
