from the american legion
TRANSCRIPT
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICEWASHINGTON : 33–055 2007
110th Congress, 1st Session – – – – – – – – – – – – – House Document 110–10
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 88TH NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGION
COMMUNICATION
FROM
THE AMERICAN LEGION TRANSMITTING
THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT AND INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF THE AMERICAN LEGION PROCEEDINGS OF THE 88TH ANNUAL NA-TIONAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGION, HELD IN SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH FROM AUGUST 25–31, 2006 AND A RE-PORT ON THE ORGANIZATION’S ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR PRE-CEDING THE CONVENTION, PURSUANT TO 36 U.S.C. 49
FEBRUARY 6, 2007.—Referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and ordered to be printed
(II)
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
THE AMERICAN LEGION, Washington, DC, February 2, 2007.
Honorable NANCY PELOSI, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
DEAR MADAM SPEAKER: In compliance with current public law we herewith transmit for printing as a House document a financial statement and independent audit of The American Legion, pro-ceedings of our 88th annual National Convention held in Salt Lake City, Utah from August 25–31, 2006 and a report on our organiza-tion’s activities for the year preceding the convention.
Sincerely, STEVE A. ROBERTSON,
Director, National Legislative Commission.
iii
Table of Contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
National Convention and Officers of The American Legion, 1919-2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Proceedings of the 88th National Convention
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Call to Order—National Commander Thomas L. Bock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Pledge of Allegiance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
POW/MIA Empty Chair Ceremony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
The American Legion Youth Champions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Presentation of the Spirit of Service Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Presentation of Gold Medal of Remembrance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Tribute by Michael Peterson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Address: The Hon. Donald H. Rumsfeld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Greetings: Carol Van Kirk, Nebraska, National President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Presentation: The Hon. Christopher Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Address: Earl R. Ruttkofsky, Michigan, Newly Elected Natl Comdr, SAL . . . . . . . . . . 17
Welcome:
The Hon. Robert F. Bennett, United States Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
The Hon. Jon Huntsman, Jr., Governor of the State of Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
The Hon. Jim Matheson, United States House of Representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
The Hon. Rob Bishop, United States House of Representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
The Hon. Peter Carroon, Mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Thad S. Jensen, 2005-2006 Department Commander of Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
William E. Christoffersen, President, National Convention Corporation . . . . . . . . 27
Address: BG William J. Leszczynski, Jr., Executive Director
American Battle Monuments Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Special Presentation: Thomas L. Bock, Colorado, National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Address: The Hon. Orrin G. Hatch, United States Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Report: Convention Committee on Credentials and Internal Affairs (Section I) . . . . . . 31
Address: Jerik Johnson, Mooresville, North Carolina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Special Report: Legion Riders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Greetings:
Kenneth Henderson, Dominion President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
General Kao, Hua-chu (Ret.), Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
General (Ret.) Kim, Hong-Rae, Vice Chairman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Earl Kish, Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Address: The Hon. Condoleezza Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Special Presentation: International Amity Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Special Presentation: Sgt. Alan Dale June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Certificate of Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Call for Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Report: Convention Committee on Legislation and Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Special Report: Flag Amendment Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Special Presentation: The A-Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Presentation: The American Legion Distinguished Service Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Report: Convention Committee on Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Announcements: Robert W. Spanogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Call to Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
iv
Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Address: Jim Hall, CEO, Children’s Miracle Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Address: Tennison Mather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Address: Lt. General Hal Moore and Joe Galloway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Address: Nathan E. White, National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution . 69
Address: The Hon. R. James Nicholson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Presentation: The Honorable Lane Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
National Commander’s Report to Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Presentation: Plaque to the City of Honolulu, Hawaii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Report: Convention Committee on Credentials and Other Internal Matters
(Section III) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Presentation: Department Membership Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Presentation: National Emergency Fund Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Presentation: National Recruiter of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Report: Convention Committees on Employment and Veterans Preference and
Other Economic Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Presentation: Employer of the Year Awards for Hiring Veterans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Presentation: American Legion Local Veterans Employee Representative
of the year Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Presentation: Disabled Veterans Outreach Program of the Year Award . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Presentation: Employment Service Office of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Presentation: Homeless Veterans Outreach Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Report: Convention Committee on Americanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Presentation: The Frank N. Belgrano, Jr. Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Presentation: Ralph T. O’Neil Education Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Presentation: William Randolph Hearst Americanism Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Presentation: 2006 National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Report: Convention Committee on Children and Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Presentation: Garland Murphy Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Presentation: U.S. ‘Udie’ Grant Legacy Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Report: Convention Committee on Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Presentation: William F. Lenker National Service Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Report: Convention Committee on Credentials and Other Internal Matters
(Section II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
Report: Convention Committee on Constitutional Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Call to Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Address: The Hon. George W. Bush, President of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Presentation: The American Legion Fourth Estate Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
Report: Convention Committee on Foreign Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
Report: Convention Committee on National Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Presentation: Plaque and Colors to Outgoing National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Special Order of Business: Election of National Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Election of the National Commander of The American Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Administering the Oath of Office to the National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Acceptance Speech: Newly Elected National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Presentation: Colors To Incoming National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
Benediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Announcement of Annual Recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
v
The American Legion 87th Annual Report
Forward, National Adjutant Robert W. Spanogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Excerpts from the Constitution of The American Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
National Executive Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Reports of National Commanders:
Willard F. Coffey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
James H. Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Michael E. Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
Sebastian T. Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312
Taurino J. Trevino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Reports:
National Chaplain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
National Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
National Judge Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Administrative Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Library and Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Information Technology (IT) Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Americanism Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Counter-Subversive Activities Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
National Committee on Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338
Commission on Children & Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340
American Legion Child Welfare Foundation, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
National Convention Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Economic Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Employment Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Veterans Preference Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352
Finance Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Emblem Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
American Legion Life Insurance Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Foreign Relations Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Internal Affairs Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362
Trophies, Awards and Ceremonials Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Resolutions Assignment Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Constitution and By-Laws Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Membership and Post Activities Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
The Sons of The American Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
National Legislative Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
National Security Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Aerospace Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Homeland Security and Civil Preparedness Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Law and Order Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Merchant Marine Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Military Affairs Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
National and Homeland Security Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Naval Affairs Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Public Relations Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
American Legion Magazine Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394
Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Report of the National President of the American Legion Auxiliary . . . . . . . . . . 415
Consolidated Financial Statements with Supplementary Information . . . . . . . . . 422