Legion about

About Us

About the Legion

The American Legion was chartered and incorporated by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic veterans organization devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is the nation’s largest wartime veterans service organization, committed to mentoring youth and sponsorship of wholesome programs in our communities, advocating patriotism and honor, promoting strong national security, and continued devotion to our fellow service members and veterans.

The American Legion is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization with great political influence perpetuated by its grass-roots involvement in the legislation process from local districts to Capitol Hill. Legionnaires’ sense of obligation to community, state and nation drives an honest advocacy for veterans in Washington. The Legion stands behind the issues most important to the nation's veterans community, backed by resolutions passed by volunteer leadership.

Mission Statement

The purpose of the American Legion Fort Cumberland Post 13 Reflects the original reasons the Legion was formed. We strive to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States, promote Peace and goodwill among the people of the United States and all nations of the earth, to cement the ties and comradeship born of service in the United States armed forces, and to consecrate the efforts of its members’ to mutual helpfulness and service to the country. We strive to make our legion a place where Veterans and their families can get help in living their daily lives, and if we cannot help, find someone who can help. We the Fort Cumberland Post 13 encourage all Veteran’s to join us in helping other veterans, their families, and our Community.

About Post 13

Post 13 located near downtown Cumberland, Maryland, is a dynamic organizations that practices and support the tenants of the American legion in an active way.

Americanism
Veterans Rehabilitation and Support
Children and Youth
National Security
Community Support

We support Americanism by upholding the traditions of celebrating Veterans Day and Memorial Day with ceremonies honoring both the living and the dead that are performed before the public. We honor the flag by a ceremony on Flag Day where we retire and burn old and tattered flags given to us by the community. We have an annual ceremony to honor those who have transferred to The Post Everlasting. We teach and demonstrate flag etiquette to elementary school children by performing flag ceremonies. We have annual picnics for the members of our post. We uphold promises uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. We support our legislative commission by using the American Legions influence on state and national legislatures to better the lives of our veterans and their families. Our Post has an active Honor Guard who provide grave site military homors for all veterans in the Tri-State area, with a volunteer average 3500 hours a year. Hour Honor Guard also helps with local churches and businesses with flag raising celebrations and even aids the city in replacing and performing a flag raising ceremony annually

We support Children and Youth through sponsorship of many youth organizations and sporting team in our area as well as support for many national youth organizations and many organizations that exist to better the lives of our national and local children. We sponsor school students in the National High School Oratorical Contest. We support the local Boy Scouts and Cub Scout packs and even the local Scout Council by helping them stock their fish pond at Camp Potomac. We support and finance both senior and junior legion baseball teams. We support many local high school teams in baseball, football, track and field, cross country, bowling with financial help when asked. We hold an annual picnic for youth of legion family members. There are many local and national organizations dedicated to youth support that we help financially and other was when asked to do so. Locally we support groups such as the Children’s League, Burlington Methodist Family Services, Maryland Salem Children’s Trust, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, and the Dapper Dan Youth Baseball

We are especially dedicated to Veterans Support and Rehabilitation in all aspects of our daily lives. Through our service officer we provide help to veterans who are having problems with getting what they deserve, or find them a copy of their discharge from the defense archives. Many times we help the widows and children of departed veterans with knowledge and words of sympathy when we can. We especially provide support to the local Cumberland VA Clinic. We provide services for veterans who are in the Martinsburg Veterans Hospital. We visit the hospital as part of the Mountain District twice a year where we feed, clothe, and entertain the members. We also feed and support members of the veterans hospital who visit the post every quarter as part of a special program at the veterans hospital. We often visit the veterans in the local nursing facilities such as Devlin Manor, Lyons Manor, and the Willow-Creek Adult Care Center, especially at the holidays. We support the annual fishing outing in conjunction with many local organizations for disabled veterans from the Martinsburg VA Hospital and the local area where they can fish, get fed, and generally have a legionnaire at their side to help them all day. We donate and support many organizations that are dedicated to help Veterans such as Homes-For-Our-Troops, National World War II Museum, Maryland Legacy Gold Star Run, The Eisenhower Legacy Society, Homes-For-Heroes, and our Legion’s National Emergency Fund. We are especially proud of providing not only the space for, but financial support for the Gulf War Memorial to the troops who have perished in the War On Terrorism. We also honor mothers and fathers of veterans annually with breakfast in thanks for the support they give to our veteran sons and daughters.

We Support National Security by providing support to the Department Legislative Committee when we can. We write and petition our congressman and women when there is a matter which will affect our veterans and active duty service personnel. We attend the two National Security Briefings that are held every year.

While not a designated pillar, Community Support encompasses all the pillars. We provide a lot to our community both in volunteer time and financial help. Community support helps not only your city or county but also helps your post. Community support is helping people who can not always help themselves, like those at the Union Mission or the Schwab Family Cancer Center who we support with a special fundraiser every year. We support the local chapter of the Special Olympics with financial support so they can train the youth who desire to compete in the state and national trials. We support many clubs, teams and events for our local high schools. We support the athletes at the two local community colleges and other students with scholarships and financial help. We also sponsor a fishing outing for disabled individuals in the local area. We support the A.C.I.T. Basketball Tournament, the Salvation Amy, the local Shriners, who help not only veterans and their families, but all families in our community.