Blackwell-Frazier American Legion Post #142 Hominy, Oklahoma

The American Legion Digital Archive – a research tool allowing access to a host of Legion materials and publications – has been released for general use after more than a year of development.

According to Library and Museum Director Howard Trace, the archive “will allow the library to organize, share and curate digital assets.” Library staff worked to customize the DSpace digital-repository software program, which is used by the Library of Congress and other big-name institutions, for the Legion’s needs. Continue reading →

The 2012 American Legion Flag & Emblem catalog features more than 50 new items. Legion family members who have placed an Emblem Sales order in the past three years should have received a catalog. Catalogs also can be requested, free of charge, online at emblem.legion.org/inforequest.asp.

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Strategy Enables Returning Vets to Engage with VA at the Local Level

Oklahoma Facebook Pages

• Muskogee VA Medical Center
• Oklahoma City VA Medical Center

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs announced today that all of its 152 medical centers are now actively represented on Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site.

“This event marks an important milestone in the overall effort to transform how VA communicates with Veterans and provide them the health care and benefits they have earned,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.  “Veterans and their families told us from the beginning that they want to engage and they want relevant information delivered at the local level.  By leveraging Facebook, the Department continues to expand access to VA, and embrace transparency and two-way conversation.”

The process that began with a single Veterans Health Administration Facebook page in 2008 has now produced over 150 Facebook pages, 64 Twitter feeds, a YouTube channel, a Flickr page, and the VAntage Point blog.  Additionally, in June 2011, VA produced a Department-wide social media policy that provides guidelines for communicating with Veterans online.  The overarching strategy is designed to help break down long-perceived barriers between the Department and its stakeholders. Continue reading →

WASHINGTON – Some Veterans covered under the Veterans Group Life Insurance program (VGLI) now have the opportunity to increase their coverage to the current maximum coverage under the Servicemembers’ Group Life Insurance (SGLI) program.

“Currently, 70 percent of the Veterans covered under VGLI are under age 60, have less than $400,000 of coverage, and will greatly benefit from this law change,” said Allison A. Hickey, Department of Veterans Affairs under secretary for benefits.

Under the Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010, enacted on Oct. 13, 2010, Veterans can increase their coverage by $25,000 at each five-year anniversary date of their policy to the current legislated maximum SGLI coverage, presently, $400,000.  Continue reading →

From Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki

WASHINGTON — On Christmas night, 1776, General George Washington led a poorly-clothed, poorly-equipped, and poorly-fed American Army across the icy Delaware River to attack well-equipped Hessian troops at the garrison in Trenton, New Jersey.  The determination of the beleaguered Americans carried the day.  They achieved total surprise, capturing 900 prisoners and their cannon.

On another brutally cold Christmas day in 1944, American troops of the 101^st Airborne Division, outnumbered, cutoff, surrounded by two panzer divisions at Bastogne, and lacking cold weather gear, ammunition, food and medical supplies fought with undaunted courage until relieved by General George Patton’s Third Army on December 26 and 27.

Six years later, in December 1950, Marines and Soldiers of X Corps surmounted overwhelming odds by breaking out of the Chinese encirclement at Chosin Reservoir.  On Christmas Eve, their evacuation from the port of Hungnam completed a masterful retrograde operation that would help turn the tide against North Korean and Chinese advances early in 1951.

For more than two centuries since the fateful Trenton crossing, American men and women have stood watch, safeguarding some of our most cherished traditions, while they and their families sacrificed theirs. Continue reading →