Nikos Papadopoulos, a former banker and commander of the American Legion’s Athens post, joined Dimitris Kontogiannis on Voice of Greece’s “Our Global Voice.” Ahead of a Veterans Day event the post was holding that evening in Thessaloniki, he looked back on its history. Founded by Greek American veterans of World War I, it is, he said, the Legion’s second-oldest post in Europe.
Papadopoulos, who served for three years in the U.S. armed forces in the United States and France, explained that veterans founded the American Legion to support one another. The organization has more than 1.6 million members worldwide.
He said that at least 25,000 Greek Americans served in the U.S. armed forces during World War I. Several thousand later returned to Greece, where Greek American veterans established the Legion’s Greek post in 1926. The Legion once had five posts and between 2,500 and 3,000 members in Greece. Today, only the Athens post remains, with a much smaller membership as many of its former members have since died.