American Legion at the convention and later became known as Legionnaires' disease ("Legionellosis"). The bacterium that causes the illness was later named "Legionella". In 1988, after over 44 years of opposing U.S. Merchant seamen from receiving benefits under the G.I. Bill, they allowed Merchant seamen to join The American Legion. This followed Merchant seamen being granted limited veterans status by the United States Secretary of the Air Force on January 19, 1988. After a 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision ("Texas v. Johnson"), The American Legion launched and funded an unsuccessful campaign to win a constitutional amendment against harming the flag of the
Polish Legion of American Veterans U.S. military veterans after World War I. Its lineage begins with the Alliance of Polish-American Veterans, created in the summer of 1920 after a gathering of veterans from Illinois, Ohio, and Wisconsin in Hawthorne, Illinois. In December 1920, this association held a provisional convention and in September 1921 it held its first regular convention, at which they changed their name to the "Alliance of American Veterans of Polish Extraction." In September 1931 the Alliance of American Veterans of Polish Extraction merged with the Polish Legion of the American Army and a veteran's organization from Michigan to form the PLAV. On