The American Legion Magazine

Articles from The American Legion Magazine

The Birth of the M-1 Garand Rifle (American Legion Magazine, 1939)

This article was written by the war correspondent Fairfax Downey (1894 – 1990) for a magazine that catered to American veterans of W.W. I, and it seemed that he simply could not contain his enthusiasm for the U.S. infantry’s newest rifle: the M-1 Garand:

What a gun it is! Its nine pound weight swings easily through the manual of arms. The eight-round clip (three more shots than the we used to have with the ’03 Springfield) slips in easily and the breech clicks closed. The old range scale slide has vanished; range and windage adjustments are made simply by turning two knobs… The new semi-automatic means, among other things, that the fire power of troops armed with it has increased at least two and a half times over the old Springfield.


For further magazine reading about John Garand and his rifle, click here.

The Birth of the M-1 Garand Rifle (American Legion Magazine, 1939) Read More »

With the Sailor Guns in France (The American Legion Magazine, 1940)

A seven page recollection of the history of the US Navy Railway Artillery Reserve, penned by W.W I naval veteran Bill Cunningham, who served as an officer on one of her five rail-mounted batteries. The unit was lead in collaboration by a hard-charging U.S. Army artillery officer but commanded by Rear Admiral Charles Plunkett (1864 – 1931), a veteran of the Spanish-American War. Cunningham described his first encounter with the admiral, who he first mistook as a member of the YMCA:

I looked up to see a tall stranger approaching. He wore a pair of black, I said black, shoes beneath some badly rolled puttees. He didn’t have on a blouse, but wore an enlisted man’s rubber slicker open down the front, and badly rust-stained around the buckles. His battered campaign hat had no cord of any sort He was strictly the least military object we’d seen in a couple of years, if ever.


Click here to read about the woman who entertained the U.S. troops during the First World War.

With the Sailor Guns in France (The American Legion Magazine, 1940) Read More »

The Great Native-American Athletes of the Early 20th Century (American Legion Magazine, 1940)

Idolized, publicized, dramatized, picturesque members of a fast diminishing aboriginal race, they were the white man’s heroes. But the white man’s adulations and his indulgences helped write ‘finis’ prematurely on the records of some of them even as his vices quickened the racial degeneration of their stock.

Sockalexis, Thorpe, Bender, Longboat and Meyers! There were scores of other notable Indian athletes from ’93 to 1915, but the names of those five were household words in the early days of the new century.

The Great Native-American Athletes of the Early 20th Century (American Legion Magazine, 1940) Read More »

Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians (American Legion Magazine, 1940)

This football article recounts the glory days of Jim Thorpe (1888 – 1953) and his Carlisle football team as well as a number of other Native-American jocks of lesser fame who were active in other sports during the same time period.

A remarkable all-around athlete, Jim Thorpe at Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania was a whiz at reversing his field or skirting an end, and there was bonecrunching power behind his charges into the line. He could punt with any of them and was a good drop kicker. But it was as a place kicker that he was really tops. He rarely missed one.


We recommend this unique college football site…

Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indians (American Legion Magazine, 1940) Read More »