The national American Legion and the local Jefferson City's Roscoe Enloe Post 5 were born in the aftermath of World War I, but the work of the American Legion has not been bound to any one set of veterans.
"We are not one generation," Dale Barnett said at Post 5 on Saturday night - ahead of when he was set to speak as a guest at the post to celebrate the 100th birthdays of the American Legion and Post 5.
Barnett, of Douglasville, Georgia, was the National Commander of the American Legion from 2015-16. He said he served 26 years with the Army's 24th Infantry Division - much of his career spent at Fort Benning in Georgia, though he also served in operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm - and he retired as a lieutenant colonel.
Barnett said the American Legion works to address the issues unique to every generation of U.S. veterans, including the most recent veterans from wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
As an example of an invitation to younger veterans, Wayne Coleman - a past Commander of Post 5 from 2009-10 - said the post is "a place to come and mingle with other members" for "camaraderie, friendship to other veterans" and to get involved with activities such as baseball, speech and Boys State, which the American Legion sponsors. The American Legion Auxiliary sponsors Girls State.
Coleman said he's been a member of the American Legion for 17 years, and he served with the U.S. 7th Army in Germany, 1967-68.
Roscoe Enloe Post 5's current Commander Jim Rosenberg is also a Cold War-era veteran; he's been involved with the organization for nine years.
"It's helping out the veterans, and that's what we do, that's what I'm all about. I grew up as an Army brat," he said Friday of why the organization matters so much to him.
He said his father was a Vietnam War veteran who served until 1975, when Jim was 16 years old.
"That was childhood," Jim said, adding to be able to help veterans now "just means the world to me."
"I have direct knowledge of how veterans are the reason why we have the freedoms we have today," he said.
Post 5 is named after Roscoe Enloe, who served with his twin brother Robert in World War I. Jeremy Amick - a relative and a military historian who writes on behalf of the Silver Star Families of America and contributes to the News Tribune - placed a picture of the Enloe twins at the base of a uniform on display at a table near the entrance to Post 5 on Saturday night.
Amick wrote a few years ago that during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in September 1918, Roscoe Enloe volunteered to take a position in front of a machine gun squad to observe enemy troops and direct gunfire onto them.
Robert Enloe later wrote Roscoe was behind one of the unit's guns on Sept. 29 when a German machine gunner opened fire and shot him through the right lung. Robert carried his brother back and used his first aid supplies to help the best he could, but Roscoe died later that evening - on Sept. 30, 1918, according to Post 5's website. He was buried in the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in Romagne, France. He was 23 years old when he died.
After the war, the American Legion was formed in 1919 by caucuses of veterans in Paris, France, and St. Louis. The Legion's Roscoe Enloe Post 5 got its official charter in June 1919.
"It's grown exponentially over the years. I don't know how many charter members were with the post at the time, but at one point in time, we were well over 2,000 members," Rosenberg said, adding the membership count last year was 1,349 - which he said has decreased over time, as has membership in all veterans' service organizations across the country.
Rosenberg said the American Legion is the largest veterans' service organization in the country, and the only such organization chartered by Congress.
The American Legion advocates for veterans; Barnett said the vision for the next five to 10 years includes reforming the Department of Veterans Affairs system for more accountability and a better appeals process, and continuing work for veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange - a chemical weapon used to strip land of tree-cover for enemy forces during the Vietnam War.
A past National Commander of the Legion, Harry W. Colmery, first drafted what would become the "GI Bill" that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law in 1944. The Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, also known as the "Forever GI Bill," which was signed into law in 2017 by President Donald Trump will continue to enhance or expand education benefits for veterans and their families.
The American Legion has also been involved in serving local communities, including Jefferson City, over its 100-year history.
According to a printed "History of the American Legion and the Founding of Post 5, Jefferson City, Missouri" compiled in 2013-14 by Ed Green, Jefferson City's then-Chief of Police Harry Mackey called together a group of Legionnaires from Post 5 in October 1939 to form an emergency police force, "The American Legion Police of Jefferson City, Missouri." Mackey cited crowd control and state affairs events needs that were beyond the capacity of the regular force to adequately handle at the time.
The men of the American Legion police force were each sworn by a judge to be full-fledged peace officers, and though they served without pay as volunteers under the direct supervision of the chief, they had the power to make arrests. They became extra-helpful to the city to have as assets when the United States entered World War II, and many of the younger full-time regular police officers were called to duty.
A 1942 News Tribune article cited in the history compiled by Green stated the American Legion Police had, at that time, responded to about 100 calls in the past year and a half, and had contributed approximately 5,000 hours of service in directing traffic, controlling crowds and responding to floods.
"I think it was still going on as late as the '60s and '70s," Rosenberg said of the history of the Legion's police force.
He added Post 5 has been at its current location for about 30 years.