With the passing of the Legion Act by Congress, there some changes to the guidelines of eligibility for membership in The American Legion. The new eligibility dates are April 6, 1917 to November 11, 1918 and December 7, 1941 to date. With the changes to the American Legion membership, we the Sons of The American Legion will have more opportunities to increase our own membership through the Sons of the new American Legion members.

Also with these changes comes changes to our Preamble. The SAL preamble has " The Great Wars" in the first and fourth sentence. The first sentence- "Proud possessors of a priceless heritage, we male descendants of veterans of the Great Wars." and the fourth sentence-"to preserve the memories of our former members and the associations of our fore fathers in the Great Wars." In both sentences the Great Wars must be removed and replaced with All Wars.

We also have new verbiage on the eligibility for membership in the Sons of The American Legion. It now reads: All male descendants, adopted sons and stepsons of members The American Legion, and such male descendants of veterans who died in service during WW1 and December 7,1941 to date,as set forth in Article IV, section 1,of the National Constitution of The American Legion, or who died subsequent to their honorable discharge from such service, shall be eligible for membership in the Sons of The American Legion".

This year the 2020 Sons of The American Legion Memorial Wreath Laying at The American Legion Washington Conference will be on March 8, 2020. We will depart from the Washington Hilton Hotel 1919 Connecticut Ave., NW,Washington DC 20009. The buses will leave the hotel at 8AM. The three memorials that will be visited are World War II Memorial at 8:20 AM. The Korean War Memorial at 9:45 AM, and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Arlington Cemetery at 11:30 AM. The bus leaves to return to the hotel at 2:00 PM.

A box lunch will be provided. Your choice of sandwich are turkey, ham or roast beef.

If you plan on visiting the memorials with us, please email me with your choice of box lunch and your cell phone number.

This year, there will be a group rate for the ride to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. If you would rather ride than walk to the Tomb, the cost will be 11.00 if purchased before Feb. 14, 2020. Cost will be $ 15.00 the day of.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you plan on attending.The deadline is January 30, 2020.

For God and Country,

Bob Phillips Jr., ANEC

PDC 2015-2016

email- bpjrsal@gmail.com