Ohio History Journal

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THE AMERICAN VETERANS OF FOREIGN SERVICE

THE AMERICAN VETERANS OF FOREIGN SERVICE

AND

THE VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS

by GEORGE T. TRIAL

National Historian, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States

 

The oldest and largest organization in this country comprised

solely of overseas ex-servicemen grew out of events in Columbus,

Ohio. That organization is the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the

United States, often identified as the V.F.W. The nearly 2,000,000

members of the V.F.W. are all campaign-medal men, who have

served in the United States Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast

Guard outside the continental boundaries of this nation. They

represent action in combat areas of the Spanish-American War,

World Wars I and II, and many other campaigns and expeditions

in which the United States has participated.

The very beginning of this "overseas fighting men's organiza-

tion" is traced to the ideals and initiative of a young man named

James Romanis who, in 1899, had just returned home from the

Cuban campaign and was discharged, as a private, from the 17th

United States Infantry Regiment. Back in civilian life Romanis

gained employment in a pharmacy outside Columbus Barracks, now

known as Fort Hayes, at Columbus, Ohio. Romanis was only in

his early twenties, but he possessed certain qualities which have

much to do with this story. He was an idealist and a thinker with

initiative and great compassion for his fellow men.

Day after day Romanis watched many men enter the pharmacy

in which he was employed. Like himself they had been recently

discharged from the army. They were suffering with tropical fever

and sought medicine with which to treat themselves. The worry

about health was their burden alone because, in 1899, our govern-

ment had not yet instituted adequate hospitalization for its war

veterans. Such services were not to be established until 1922-

nearly a quarter century later.

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