United We Stand!!

Jim Pisa

By Terry Huisman, Department Commander

ITS AN HONOR TO SERVE YOU
Thank you for electing me as your Commander at the Department Convention held in Fairbanks Alaska. Post 57 thank you for your wonderful hospitality. The food was great and so were the rooms.
I will be visiting most Posts this year. Adjutant Gene Franks has sent the letters of request for visitation out to each Post and Im looking forward to visiting with all of you. Our Adjutant is ever watchful of our budget. Airline fares have gone up as much as 30% to some locations and Adjutant Franks schedules me to be at as many Posts in an area for the best possible price. With that said, if for some reason you need to cancel my visitation, please let me know as soon as you know.
Each year I select a new motto to live and work by. This year it is United We Stand. What does that mean? United as veterans, family, friends and as a nation to the betterment for our troops and veterans. This requires a group effort. As The American Legion, Sons of the American Legion, Scouting, Baseball, Legion Riders, Oratorical, Auxiliary etc. We the people need to take control of uniting our organization and the national effort behind programs to help veterans. When a veteran stands for honor and safety at home and abroad. We stand united for the common good of all. As a Legion Family we have the ground work to make it happen. The programs of the Legion and the Legion Family show us how to make it happen. At a time when so many of our veterans need help, also our local communities needs help. The economy has taken a down turn and to make it through these tough times America will need to get back to the basics. The Legion specialized in getting back to basics. We teach through our program of children and youth solid goals for life. How to succeed
and the need for the extended Legion family. How many times have you gone into your local Post, tired, exasperated, and not knowing where to turn? The furnace is broke and you cant find guy to come out and fix it. You need a second car and dont know where to go. You start to talk to your extended family and John Smith says, thats what I do for a living, fix furnaces. Try this! Well, that is what the American Legion has been doing for years. We fix things through our programs; children who need to learn how to play together through our program, returning soldiers coming home who need to talk to people who have been through the same experiences. Spouses who need other spouses to talk to and understand why our legion members get stressed. Scholarships to allow
our next generation to succeed. Our extended family is what you make of it. United WE Stand.