OUR HISTORY

 

The orig­i­nal char­ter has been amended sev­eral times to admit as mem­bers those who served in dif­fer­ent eras. Today, mem­ber­ship in AMVETS is open to any­one who is cur­rently serv­ing, or who has hon­or­ably served, in the U.S. Armed Forces from World War II to the present, to include the National Guard and Reserves.

 

As a volunteer-led orga­ni­za­tion, we annu­ally elect and/or appoint offi­cers at the national, dis­trict, depart­ment and post lev­els. Each August, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from these lev­els attend the AMVETS national con­ven­tion to make deci­sions on issues affect­ing vet­er­ans and the organization.

 

Over the years, AMVETS has been in the fore­front of public-policy related to national defense, ser­vices for home­less vet­er­ans, ade­quate fund­ing for the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs, con­cur­rent receipt of retire­ment pay and dis­abil­ity com­pen­sa­tion by dis­abled mil­i­tary retirees, vet­er­ans employ­ment and train­ing, POW/MIA account­abil­ity and flag protection.

 

In addi­tion to the work of our national ser­vice offi­cers, other AMVETS mem­bers, as well as those in the AMVETS Ladies Aux­il­iary, will devote as many as 250,000 hours of free time a year to brighten the lives of hos­pi­tal­ized vet­er­ans. Here, some­thing as sim­ple as play­ing cards with the lonely or watch­ing tele­vi­sion with the dis­abled can make a world of difference.