Hello again, Legion Family,

The Sons of The American Legion have been working hard to finish our year strong and I want to share some great updates. In May, I stated I thought we would be hitting the $10 million mark for the Child Welfare Foundation (CWF), and we did it. Plan on celebrating in New Orleans.

I also said I thought we would be celebrating a new all-time high in membership, and we checked that box also. Wow, what work is being done by our blue cap members.

We did not raise over $10 million with a snap of our fingers; it took a lot of hard work, selling products, raffles and getting donations from all of our members, and I want to say thank you and job well done. To our squadrons and membership team, thank you also for a great job getting your memberships in and doing such a great job growing the Sons of The American Legion. We are over 384,000 members, and I can’t wait to see how high we will go. I look forward to New Orleans where we can all celebrate our accomplishments.

As I am writing this, I just got home from the Legion Family trip to Normandy; oh, what a trip it was. The entire Legion Family was there as American Legion National Commander Daniel J. Seehafer spoke at the unveiling of President Eisenhower’s statue. Together we all laid wreaths the same day at memorials for Alexandre Renaud and the airborne companies that were part of the D-Day air invasion. The next day we were together again as Commander Seehafer spoke at the founding father of the American Legion Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr.’s statue, and together we each laid wreaths to honor him while representing our three organizations.

For me, personally, the next morning when we went to Omaha Beach was the most rewarding and touching. I was able to stand and see the beach my grandfather and so many of our soldiers stormed on D-Day. As I stood there thinking of all the brave young men that went against the odds, it was a very emotional morning. These men fought for our freedom and for love of country so we could have the lives we live today.

It is always good to celebrate when good overcomes bad; we must never forget all of the sacrifices made by our armed forces. I could write about the trip for a while, but I want to say thank you Sons and Legion Family. Thanks for the opportunity to represent you and my grandfather as the national commander, along with my wife Margie to take part in all of the ceremonies. We will never forget.

Hoping everyone is closing out the year strong and having great conventions.

“Representing More Than Me”

Don “JR” Hall

SAL National Commander