The American Legion is hoping its upcoming 100th birthday will bring renewal to one of the nation’s largest and quickly graying veterans organizations.

The Legion’s national commander, Charles Schmidt, said during a weeklong Colorado visit that he wants the organization to focus on its accomplishments and press forward with programs for children in a bid to draw younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to its ranks.

“That’s where the rubber meets the road,” said Schmidt, an Air Force retiree from eastern Oregon.

Schmidt, who served nearly 27 years in the Air Force, said he was a reluctant Legionnaire at the start.

His brother, a longtime Legion member, continually pressed him to join, but Schmidt said he didn’t see the point.

“I was a little bit stubborn,” he said.

Eventually, he gave in and began seeing the virtue of the group, which was founded in the wake of World War I. Schmidt said that while the Legion provides veterans camaraderie they lack after they leave the military, it also provides advocacy in Congress and hard-fighting help for veterans struggling with benefit claims.

Additionally, it provides educational programs for students and its post are loaded with community volunteers – its 2.4 million members provide nearly 4 million hours of community service annually – which Schmidt thinks could be key for growing the Legion.

“We have to get out in communities and schools and share those programs,” he said.

That could arrest the shrinking of the Legion, which like other veterans groups has suffered declining membership as the generations that battled World War II and the Korean War age, he said.

The Legion plans 18 months of celebrations for the centennial of the group.

First, the Legion is continuing its fight to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs.

The Legion, while nonpartisan, is backing a set of reforms before Congress that would give the VA broader power to discipline employees while streamlining the appeals process for veterans denied benefits.

The easier discipline is something organizations including the VA have sought since 2014 after it was revealed that the agency had big backlogs for medical care, leaving some veterans to die while waiting for appointments.

In Colorado Springs, wait times have dropped slightly for veterans seeking care at the Floyd K. Lindstrom Clinic on Fillmore Street, VA records show, but waits remain some of the worst in the nation. As of Sept. 1, more than 23 percent of veterans seeking care there were waiting a month or more, VA records show.

Schmidt said giving VA leaders more power to discipline workers could cause the agency to reform itself, streamlining care.

The appeals waits need work, too. The VA has spent two years cutting its backlog of pending claims, but many of those claims have been denied and landed in an appeals process.

“Veterans have waited months or years for the appeals to be adjudicated,” Schmidt said.

He wants speedy appeals so veterans swiftly get the benefits they have earned, he said.

The Legion, though, is resisting a wider reform proposal backed by lawmakers including Washington Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers. That plan, which has drawn admirers including Colorado Springs Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, would give veterans wider access to private care outside the VA.

The Legion fears the proposal could damage VA hospitals and clinics while putting veterans with war-caused problems in the care of civilian doctors unfamiliar with their military maladies.

“The American Legion’s position is not to privatize,” Schmidt said. “Who has better experience in taking care of veterans than the Department of Veterans Affairs?”

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Contact Tom Roeder: 636-0240