U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

33–055 WASHINGTON : 2007

110th Congress, 1st Session – – – – – – – – – – – – – House Document 110–10 

PROCEEDINGS OF THE 88TH NATIONAL CONVENTION 

OF THE AMERICAN LEGION 

COMMUNICATION 

FROM

THE AMERICAN LEGION 

TRANSMITTING

THE FINANCIAL STATEMENT AND INDEPENDENT AUDIT OF THE 

AMERICAN LEGION PROCEEDINGS OF THE 88TH ANNUAL NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAN LEGION, HELD IN 

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH FROM AUGUST 25–31, 2006 AND A REPORT ON THE ORGANIZATION’S ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR PRECEDING THE CONVENTION, PURSUANT TO 36 U.S.C. 49 

FEBRUARY 6, 2007.—Referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and 

ordered to be printed 
(II)

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 

THE AMERICAN LEGION, Washington, DC, February 2, 2007. 

Honorable NANCY PELOSI, Speaker, House of Representatives, 

Washington, DC. 

DEAR MADAM SPEAKER: In compliance with current public law we 

herewith transmit for printing as a House document a financial 

statement and independent audit of The American Legion, proceedings of our 88th annual National Convention held in Salt Lake 

City, Utah from August 25–31, 2006 and a report on our organization’s activities for the year preceding the convention. 

Sincerely, 

STEVE A. ROBERTSON, Director, National Legislative Commission. 
iii

Table of Contents

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

National Convention and Officers of The American Legion, 1919-2006 . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

Proceedings of the 88th National Convention

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Call to Order—National Commander Thomas L. Bock ..........................1

Invocation .............................................................1

Pledge of Allegiance ....................................................2

POW/MIA Empty Chair Ceremony .........................................2

The American Legion Youth Champions .....................................2

Presentation of the Spirit of Service Awards ..................................5

Presentation of Gold Medal of Remembrance .................................8

Tribute by Michael Peterson ..............................................9

Address: The Hon. Donald H. Rumsfeld .....................................9

Greetings: Carol Van Kirk, Nebraska, National President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Presentation: The Hon. Christopher Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Address: Earl R. Ruttkofsky, Michigan, Newly Elected Natl Comdr, SAL . . . . . . . . . . 17

Welcome:

The Hon. Robert F. Bennett, United States Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

The Hon. Jon Huntsman, Jr., Governor of the State of Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

The Hon. Jim Matheson, United States House of Representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

The Hon. Rob Bishop, United States House of Representatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

The Hon. Peter Carroon, Mayor of Salt Lake County, Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Thad S. Jensen, 2005-2006 Department Commander of Utah . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

William E. Christoffersen, President, National Convention Corporation . . . . . . . . 27

Address: BG William J. Leszczynski, Jr., Executive Director

American Battle Monuments Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Special Presentation: Thomas L. Bock, Colorado, National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Address: The Hon. Orrin G. Hatch, United States Senate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Report: Convention Committee on Credentials and Internal Affairs (Section I) . . . . . . 31

Address: Jerik Johnson, Mooresville, North Carolina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Special Report: Legion Riders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Greetings:

Kenneth Henderson, Dominion President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

General Kao, Hua-chu (Ret.), Minister . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

General (Ret.) Kim, Hong-Rae, Vice Chairman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Earl Kish, Vice President . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Address: The Hon. Condoleezza Rice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Special Presentation: International Amity Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Special Presentation: Sgt. Alan Dale June . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Certificate of Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Call for Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Report: Convention Committee on Legislation and Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Special Report: Flag Amendment Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Special Presentation: The A-Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Presentation: The American Legion Distinguished Service Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Report: Convention Committee on Finance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Announcements: Robert W. Spanogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Call to Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
iv

Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Address: Jim Hall, CEO, Children’s Miracle Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Address: Tennison Mather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Address: Lt. General Hal Moore and Joe Galloway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Address: Nathan E. White, National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution . 69

Address: The Hon. R. James Nicholson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Presentation: The Honorable Lane Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

National Commander’s Report to Convention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Presentation: Plaque to the City of Honolulu, Hawaii . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Report: Convention Committee on Credentials and Other Internal Matters

(Section III) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Presentation: Department Membership Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Presentation: National Emergency Fund Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Presentation: National Recruiter of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Report: Convention Committees on Employment and Veterans Preference and

Other Economic Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Presentation: Employer of the Year Awards for Hiring Veterans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

Presentation: American Legion Local Veterans Employee Representative

of the year Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Presentation: Disabled Veterans Outreach Program of the Year Award . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Presentation: Employment Service Office of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Presentation: Homeless Veterans Outreach Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Report: Convention Committee on Americanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Presentation: The Frank N. Belgrano, Jr. Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Presentation: Ralph T. O’Neil Education Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Presentation: William Randolph Hearst Americanism Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Presentation: 2006 National Law Enforcement Officer of the Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143

Report: Convention Committee on Children and Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Presentation: Garland Murphy Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Presentation: U.S. ‘Udie’ Grant Legacy Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

Report: Convention Committee on Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation . . . . . . . . . . . 156

Presentation: William F. Lenker National Service Trophy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202

Report: Convention Committee on Credentials and Other Internal Matters

(Section II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203

Report: Convention Committee on Constitutional Amendments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Call to Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212

Address: The Hon. George W. Bush, President of the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213

Presentation: The American Legion Fourth Estate Award . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220

Report: Convention Committee on Foreign Relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Report: Convention Committee on National Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Presentation: Plaque and Colors to Outgoing National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276

Special Order of Business: Election of National Officers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Election of the National Commander of The American Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Administering the Oath of Office to the National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

Acceptance Speech: Newly Elected National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Presentation: Colors To Incoming National Commander . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Benediction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

Announcement of Annual Recipients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
v

The American Legion 87th Annual Report

Forward, National Adjutant Robert W. Spanogle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

Excerpts from the Constitution of The American Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304

National Executive Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306

Reports of National Commanders:

Willard F. Coffey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

James H. Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Michael E. Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310

Sebastian T. Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312

Taurino J. Trevino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313

Reports:

National Chaplain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

National Historian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

National Judge Advocate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

Administrative Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Library and Museum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331

Information Technology (IT) Division . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Americanism Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

Counter-Subversive Activities Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

National Committee on Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 338

Commission on Children & Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 340

American Legion Child Welfare Foundation, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

National Convention Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Economic Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

Employment Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Veterans Preference Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

Finance Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

Emblem Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

American Legion Life Insurance Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354

Foreign Relations Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Internal Affairs Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Trophies, Awards and Ceremonials Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Resolutions Assignment Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Constitution and By-Laws Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

Membership and Post Activities Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

The Sons of The American Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

National Legislative Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366

National Security Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Aerospace Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Homeland Security and Civil Preparedness Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390

Law and Order Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Merchant Marine Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Military Affairs Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

National and Homeland Security Council . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Naval Affairs Committee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Public Relations Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393

American Legion Magazine Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 394

Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395

Report of the National President of the American Legion Auxiliary . . . . . . . . . . 415

Consolidated Financial Statements with Supplementary Information . . . . . . . . . 422