value-prisoners-in-world-war-i

SSgt GG-15 RET Jim Lint - Actually, isn't the VFW a little bit older and still in operation?
I thought that the American Legion was started during the WWI Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919?

Yes, I see the VFW claims the Spanish American war, but the reality the VFW was not chartered by Congress until much later than Am Legion (1919). VFW was in 1936, Source https://www.vfw.org/news-and-publications/press-room/archives/2014/9/vfw-to-update-congressional-charter VFW was a merger of
American Veterans of Foreign Service National Society of the Army of the Philippines. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_of_Foreign_Wars and The VFW’s congressional charter was signed in 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when the military was comprised almost entirely of men. The update consists of two wording changes — replacing men with veterans, and widows with surviving spouses — and is supported by two companion bills, S. 2782 and H.R. 5441, which were introduced by Senate VA Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and House VA Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.), respectively. https://www.vfw.org/news-and-publications/press-room/archives/2014/9/vfw-to-update-congressional-charter The American Legion, Inc., is a U.S. wartime veterans organization formed in Paris, on February 16, 1919, by three officers of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) The American Legion was chartered by the U.S. Congress on September 16, 1919. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legion

SSG Robert Webster - I think both of them play a silly game about history. The Congressional Charter is the legal start. Actually, the Sp-Am War Vets were dying out and the organizations combined to make the new one at the time of the charter. Both have good benefits of helping with VA paperwork. Am Legion is larger with 2 million but both and all older vet orgs are losing members...sadly.

SSgt GG-15 RET Jim Lint - But you did not say Chartered by the government, in your first statement. Secondly, to be a 'legal' organization does not require a federal charter. Third, to gain a federal charter or "Congressional Charter" currently requires that the organization is already a legal entity, they are not created out of thin air.
The relationship between Congress and the organization is largely a symbolic honorific giving the organization the aura of being "officially" sanctioned by the U.S. government. However, Congress does not oversee or supervise organizations with the charter (other than receiving a yearly financial statement).
Some charters create corporate entities, akin to being incorporated at the federal level. This is what the American Legion, VFW, the DAV, and the 82nd Airborne Division Association are.
More common is a charter that recognizes a group already incorporated at the state level. These mostly honorific charters tend "to provide an 'official' imprimatur to their activities, and to that extent it may provide them prestige and indirect financial benefit". Groups that fall into this group are usually veterans’ groups, fraternal groups or youth groups like the USO. Congress has chartered about 100 fraternal or patriotic groups.
Eligibility for a charter is based on a group’s activities, whether they are unique, and whether or not they are in the public interest. If this is the case, a bill to grant a charter is introduced in Congress and must be voted into law. There had been questions about the federal government's power to manage corporations who have received charters. Amid dissatisfaction with the system, the subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee decided not to consider applications for further charters in 1992, though several were still granted thereafter. However, since 1992 the only (mostly) 'charters' that have been 'granted' are basically updates for those already in place, this is why the IAVA is not very successful in their attempt to gain a 'Congressional Charter,' presently.
Anyway, the VFW has already celebrated their 100th (Centennial) Anniversary already in 1999, now it is time for (in a couple of years) the 100th (Centennial) Anniversary for the American Legion.