THE AMERICAN LEGION IN GREECE: The Athens Post was formed in Dec. 1926 in Greece by immigrants to the U.S., university students and businessmen who fought with the U.S. Expeditionary Force of 26,000 men in Europe in the First World War. It was chartered by the American Legion in September 1927. The Athens Post organized an excursion of the American Legion to Greece in 1930 to Celebrate the Centenary of the Greek Independence. In the same year it also legalized its status in Greece with a Greek constitution. With an office in Athens the Post embarked, with the assistance of the Greek Government, in a gigantic effort to locate all Greeks who fought in the Great War. It corresponded with most local communities of Greece and solicited the names and addresses of veterans or their next of kin, if missing or killed in action. All pertinent records are in the possession of the Athens Post. These records, together with the ones accumulated until now from members that joined the post since, are precious documents our Post has an obligation to record, analyze, study, protect and publicize. Equally valuable is the Posts performance, especially in the first 40 years of its existence. The Post had built and donated to the City of Athens in 1930 the brilliant monument dedicated to the American Philhellenes that fought with the Greek patriots in the Greek War of Independence of 1821. Funds for the monument were solicited from the Greek public, individuals, students, banks and businessmen. The Posts and Greeces images enhanced all Greek-American communities status in the U.S. and many Greek-American veterans, because of adverse economic conditions during the great depression of 1928 and after years, chose to repatriate to Greece. The Posts membership grew bigger year after year. The assistance provided by the U.S. Government to veterans was an important stimulus to the legionnaires and to the Greek economy. The business-minded Legionnaires, and their properly educated and guided sons and daughters certainly proved an asset to the Greek economy. The Legionnaires devotion to cultivate closer relations between Greece and America as its constitution states and to improve their standing led them to the purchase in 1939 of their own building at their present address, Tziraion street # 9 near the Acropolis Archeological Museum in Athens. The Post immediately went ahead with the addition of an extra floor consisting of a multi-purpose hall, two office rooms adjacent to the stairway, a kitchen counter and lavatories. Two flag stands were erected on the roof to display the two nations flags side by side. Elder neighborhood residents still remember the impressive sight with the flags. The Second World War sent a new wave of GreekAmerican veterans to Greece. The Athens Post expanded in numbers and in actions. A noteworthy project of having two marble busts sculptured, one each for the ancient Ippocrates and Asklepios, was executed by a Greek Sculptor and shipped to Walter Reed Hospital in U.S. early 1959, to further promote the good relationship of the two countries and simultaneously enhance the Greek Image as leader in Medicine in antiquity. Additional Posts were established in Greece: in Tripolis (GC02 in 1932), Patras (GC03), Chania (GC04) and Thessalonike (GC05). The Posts records indicate the Posts served their mission well. They assisted their members with problems of their pensions and their widows paperwork with the Veterans Administration. They organized functions to entertain their members and encouraged contact between their families. They met their social responsibilities assisting needy individuals not only seasonally but when approached. They always promoted the American ideals and cultivated them to their children. The Athens Post did its best to assist the National Commander, visiting Athens, with an honor guard with the Legionnaires wearing their Legion Hats and carrying their banners whenever the National Commander placed a wreath in the Unknown Soldier Tomb in front of the Parliament building. They organized functions to honor the National Commander and assisted the Greek Government with their activities in his honor. Their objective was promotion of Greek-American relations. Currently, there is one active post in Greece, the American Legion post GC01, Athens Greece,located at Tziraeon 9 street, at the Makrigianni area of Athens, and is under the jurisdiction of the American Legion Department of France The post as of November 2011, under a newly elected board of directors and Commander, is trying to perpetuate the mission and values of the American Legion, and to promote Greek American relations as well relations within the American community in Greece. with mutual support and coopeation
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 13:15:44 +0000
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