What is the difference between a VFW and the American Legion?

Answer 1

American Legion and Amvets are both veterans organizations. These organizations are for certain members. There are various differences between the two post, in their history and various methods on how they run their post, where they attend their conventions ect...A difference between the two are the CRITERIA requiirments for membership. Amvets started out before the end of WWII around 1944. They were called American Veterans of WWII. After the Korean War, they became known as American Veterans of WWII and KOREA. (They got their congressional charter in 1947.) They have since dropped their WWII/KOREA part of it and is currently called AMVETS, or American Veterans. Their membership requirements are that you must have served in the Armed Forces of the USA and must have RECEIVED AN HONORABLE DISCHARGE. Time, place, status doesn't matter. Can have been during peace time service, combat service, at ANY TIME or PLACE. Another requirement is that you must have served after 1940. So if you served in the 1930's and or WWI and got out before 1940, you are NOT QUALIFIED to join Amvets.....(How many of those guys are around anymore?) AMVETS is perhaps the simplest form in joining any veterans organization. They take anyone with an honorable discharge. The American Legion was founded in 1919 during WWI as a WARTIME veterans organization. It was founded in FRANCE by soldiers. The criteria for joining is somewhat that of AMVETS but they added some dates of eligibility requirements. Dates such as that parallel certain wars and conflicts established by CONGRESS. This makes the eligibility slightly tougher than Amvets. Though most veterans can join this group because the dates of eligibility given, only few fall between the cracks that fall in between these dates. Here are their eligibility dates for membership in American Legion: April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918 (World War I)

December 7, 1941 to December 31, 1946 (World War II)

June 25, 1950 to January 31, 1955 (Korean War)

February 28, 1961 to May 7, 1975 (Vietnam War)

August 24, 1982 to July 31, 1984 (Lebanon/Grenada)

December 20, 1989 to January 31, 1990 (Panama)

August 2, 1990 to today (Gulf War/War On Terrorism) If you look at the gaps of those not eligible to join American Legion below in this example. If a person joined their full time in military in these dates given below, they are not eligible for Legion membership. You can see that more are eligible to join the American Legion than not. Compare the two charts above and below. *I'm not including WWI because them dudes are gone now. 1946-1950 1955-1961 1975-1982 1984-1989 I calculate in years after WWII that those eligibility years add up to about 46 years. Those that don't make the eligibility years average 22 years. Furthermore, all you need is only ONE DAY of Active Duty in those eligible dates to qualify for membership, so its not as hard as one may think it is to join American Legion. This explains why they are probably the BIGGEST of the organizations and most influential, and probably the one with the most resources. Furthermore, both organizations allow MERCHANT MARINES into their organization IF they were given veteran status and those dates are like from 1941-1946, or WWII types, which of most of them dudes are gone and going by the way side very fast now.

Answer 2

The VFW was America's first FOREIGN war (fought on foreign soil), even though the US did invade and fight deep down into Mexico during the Mexican War of 1846; Mexico was still a bordering nation located on the North American continent. The Spanish-American War was fought out in the Pacific when Admiral Dewey fought the Spanish Fleet in Manilla Bay (Philippines). Hence the title "Veterans of FOREIGN Wars." So, the Veterans of the Spanish-American war founded their organization in 1899.

The American Legion was founded in 1919 by WWI veterans.

Originally, each organization was created because only those veterans of their particular war could join them. So, Spanish-American vets joined the VFW, and WWI vets made up their own group (American Legion). WWII men created AMVETS (American Veterans). Vietnam Vets created the VVA (Viet Vets of America).

As they veterans die off, membership naturally dies off with it, and the organization disappears...as did GAR (the US Civil War "Grand Army of the Republic"). So now, as the veteran numbers begin to decline, they pass new "laws" to allow new NON-Veterans of that particular war TO JOIN. President Reagan signed a law allowing NON-WWII veterans to be able to join AMVETs. Others have done the same. Now, all vets can join any vet organization. However, the VFW is the most popular...because most (if not all) veterans are more proud of the title "WAR vet", and being a member of the VFW automatically infers that an individual is a WAR VET...since the VFW is the ONLY VET ORGANIZATION THAT HAS THE WORD WAR IN IT'S TITLE.