Santa Clara Post 419

National Headquarters

Who Are We?

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help, war-time veterans organization. A community-service organization which now numbers nearly 2 million members -- men and women -- in nearly 13,000 American Legion Posts worldwide. These Posts are organized into 55 Departments -- one each for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, France, Mexico, and the Philippines.

The Sons of the American Legion were founded in 1932 and are part of The Legion.  Their mission is to honor the service and sacrifice of Legionnaires.  S.A.L. members include males of all ages whose parents or grandparents served in the U.S. military and were eligible for American Legion membership.

American Legion Riders chapters are well known for their charitable work, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local children's hospitals, schools, veterans homes, severely wounded servicemembers and scholarships. Since 2006, Riders nationwide have participated in The American Legion Legacy Run to annually raise money for the Legacy Scholarship Fund, established to provide scholarships to children of U.S. military personnel killed since Sept. 11, 2001.

The American Legion Auxiliary was also founded in 1919 and is a separate organization.  Their mission is to support The American Legion and to honor the sacrifice of those who serve by enhancing the lives of our veterans, military, and their families, both at home and abroad. We are the male and female spouses, grandmothers, mothers, sisters, granddaughters and direct and adopted female descendants of members of The American Legion. Some of us are veterans ourselves.  For God and country, we advocate for veterans, educate our citizens, mentor youth, and promote patriotism, good citizenship, peace and security.

The Legion Family consists of the members of The American Legion, American Legion Auxiliary, Sons of The American Legion, and American Legion Riders.  The Legion Family has a combined membership of nearly 3 million.

The American Legion & Auxiliary respective national headquarters are co-located in Indianapolis, Indiana, with additional offices in Washington, DC. In addition to thousands of volunteers serving in leadership and program implementation capacities in local communities to the Legion's standing national commissions and committees, the national organization has a regular full-time staff of about 300 employees.

Visit the American Legion & Auxiliary national websites at www.legion.org and www.alaforveterans.org, respectively.