An Oregonian's place in the Legion's birth

He was a beloved soldier, family man, Oregonian and visionary co-founder of The American Legion. And George A. White’s legacy infused a gathering of veterans, families and dignitaries who packed American Legion Post 10 in Albany, Ore., March 15 to mark the 100th birthday of the nation’s largest veterans service organization.

“He was there from the very beginning,” Oregon Alternate National Executive Committee member Andy Millar said. “He was a true Legionnaire.”

“I get choked up because of my dad,” added Steve Adams, first vice commander of the Department of Oregon, who began accompanying his father on visits to American Legion posts when he was 6 years old. “He made me promise to never forget World War I because that’s when The American Legion was born.”

The centennial celebration drew veterans from across the state. Their service spanned generations, from David Russell – who survived the sinking of USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor – to Don Weber and Rick Dominguez, whose long military careers included deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, respectively. But the event that brought them together at Post 10 last week started when four American officers met in Paris in January 1919.

Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt Jr. had invited White, William Donovan – future founder of U.S. intelligences services – and engineer and architect Eric Fisher Wood to dinner to discuss low morale among American troops. The war-weary soldiers were apprehensive about returning home to an uncertain future after enduring brutal combat along the Western Front. At a meeting of 20 officers a month later, it was White who proposed a large gathering of American servicemembers to discuss these perplexing issues. As many as 1,000 American troops attended what became known as the Paris Caucus beginning on March 15, 1919, that formed The American Legion.

When Roosevelt and White first sat down in a restaurant in Paris in January that year to discuss launching an organization to represent U.S. veterans of the Great War, “the question was, ‘Who is going to take care of the boys when they all get home? Who is going to care about them and their jobs?’ Because at that juncture, there was no Veterans Administration,” American Legion Past National Commander Charles Schmidt said during the centennial celebration.

“And because there were some boys who would never go home, there were widows and orphans. So, who was going to take care of them? ... Little did they know when they first sought those answers it would be them. When Lt. Cols. Roosevelt Jr. and White sat down at dinner in January 1919, they had the same concerns about the needs of the veteran doughboys. We in Oregon can be proud that an Oregonian participated in the formation and development of our American Legion.”

White was a seasoned soldier by the time the United States entered the first world war. He served with the Utah artillery during the Spanish-American War, then joined the Oregon National Guard and led a cavalry unit during the Mexican expedition of 1916-1917. Oregon’s 3rd Regiment – which he commanded – was the first National Guard unit ready to go to the front when the United States entered World War I. White became one of Gen. John Pershing’s personal aides during the conflict and was at his side when the Armistice was signed Nov. 11, 1919, in France.

White was elected secretary of The American Legion’s first National Executive Committee, which met immediately after the Paris Caucus. He and another Oregonian, Robert Follet, were two of the first national vice commanders. Because of his journalism experience at the Salt Lake Tribune and Portland Oregonian, White also became the first editor of the American Legion Weekly magazine and published the first issue on July 4, 1919.

With The American Legion Weekly off to a good start, White returned to his post as adjutant general of the Oregon National Guard. “The American Legion has developed exactly along the lines of the original vision of a small group of men who met and planned the Paris Caucus,” White wrote in a column for The American Legion Weekly magazine in November 1920. “Their dream of a great soldier’s organization, moved by an impulse for continued service to America and held together by the ties of comradeship in the world’s greatest adventure, has come true.”

In addition to overseeing the Oregon National Guard and helping build the Legion, White wrote four novels, including a story about a foreign invasion called "Attack on America," that was published in 1939. He fell ill while training Oregon’s 41st Division and died of pneumonia Nov. 23, 1941, just two weeks before Pearl Harbor.

“The doctor told him, ‘You are going to die if you don’t get bed rest,’” said Pamela Pearson-Craig, White’s great-granddaughter. White refused, believing readying his troops was more important given the prospect that the United States was on the brink of another war. “But he died doing what he felt was most important for our nation.”

Thousands turned out in downtown Portland for White’s funeral procession, which included members of the 162nd and 186th infantry regiments, according to the Oregon Journal.

Pearson-Craig loved spending time with White’s widow, Henrietta, while she was growing up and heard story after story about her great grandfather’s impact. “It’s nothing short of amazing that he and other founding fathers had a great vision to fulfill a great need,” she said. “It is wonderful that, after all these years, The American Legion is still going strong. This would make him very happy – to know one of his many legacies lives on.”

The organization White help found has been a powerful advocate for veterans during the past century, National Adjutant Daniel S. Wheeler noted during his keynote address at the 100th anniversary celebration in Albany. “The American Legion fought for, and achieved a single Veterans Bureau in 1921 and then the Veterans Administration in 1930 to put all services for veterans under one arm of federal support,” Wheeler said. Before that, veterans in need of assistance were bounced from one government agency to another.

National American Legion conferences in 1923 and 1924 resulted in the first U.S. Flag Code. The American Legion subsequently drafted and fought for passage of the GI Bill in the face of fierce opposition from the Army, Navy, some members of Congress, and even some other veterans service organizations. Helping World War II veterans attend trade school or college had the added benefit of returning them to the job market gradually and spared the nation the daunting challenge of absorbing millions back into the U.S. workforce all at once.

The American Legion’s advocacy continued as the world entered the nuclear age. “Before The American Legion demanded accountability and justice for veterans exposed to atomic radiation, government support for service-connected toxic exposure simply did not exist,” Wheeler said. The Legion joined forces with Columbia University on a study that proved Agent Orange exposure was responsible for diseases afflicting Vietnam War veterans and their children.

In addition, American Legion studies dating back to the 1920s helped provide the evidence for making post-traumatic stress disorder a psychological diagnosis in 1980, Wheeler explained. Along the way, The American Legion and American Legion Auxiliary established and promoted landmark youth programs, including Boys Sate, Girls State, Oratorical Contest, American Legion Baseball and others. And today, more than 3,000 American Legion service officers are helping some 750,000 veterans with their VA benefits free of charge.

“As we look to the future, a second century of individual obligation to community, state and nation, that founding vision – which George A. White helped give us – is a timeless beacon to guide our way because America has always been made stronger by The American Legion and always will,” Wheeler said. “I often wonder what America would be today if not for the vision of our founders, like George A. White, and execution of that vision over the decades, by people like you, in your department, districts and posts. I can guarantee you it would be a different place, and our nation would not be nearly as strong as it is today.”