The American Legion was founded in 1919 in Paris, France, at the close of World War I. The organization now includes wartime veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon/Grenada periods, Operation Just Cause in Panama and has grown into the largest veteran's organization in the world. Aberdeen Post 72 was granted a temporary charter by our National Headquarters in Indianapolis, IN on April 9,
1938. On January 11, 1943, Myrtle McBride and others received a charter for Auxiliary Unit 72. Our Post Home was used as a USO during World War II as troops would stop in at the train depot in Aberdeen. Aberdeen Post 72 received it's permanent charter on February 6, 1947. Unfortunately, sometime later Auxiliary Unit 72 became inactive and turned in it's charter. Post 72 also slipped from it's peak of 240 members in 1947 to around 30 members in 1990. Since that time, Post 72 has seen a resurgence that now has our Post roles at 150 members and growing. We have refurbished our Post Home, added Chapter 72 of the American Legion Riders on August 14, 2007, re-chartered Auxiliary Unit 72, and for good measure chartered Sons of the American Legion (SAL) Squadron 72 on March 9, 2009. Together we are proud to be a family of wartime veterans, spouses, parents, and children still serving America!! It's all summed up by the preamble to our Constitution, which reads as follows:
"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 per cent Americanism; to preserve the memories and incidents of our associations in the Great Wars; in 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."
