What
is the Forty and Eight?
The Forty
& Eight was founded in 1920 by American veterans returning from
France. Originally an arm of The American Legion, the Forty & Eight
became an independent and separately incorporated veteran's
organization in 1960. Membership is by invitation to ALL honorably
discharged veterans and honorably serving members of the United States
Armed Forces.
The Forty & Eight is
committed to charitable and patriotic aims. Our purpose is to uphold
and defend the United States Constitution, to promote the well being of
veterans and their widows and orphans, and to actively participate in
selected charitable endeavors, which include programs that promote
child welfare and nurse's training.
The titles
and symbols of the Forty & Eight reflect its First World War
origins. Americans were transported to the battle front on French
trains within boxcars stenciled with a “40/8”, denoting its capacity to
hold either forty men or eight horses. This uncomfortable mode of
transportation was familiar to all who fought in the trenches; a common
small misery among American soldiers who thereafter found “40/8” a
lighthearted symbol of the deeper service, sacrifice and unspoken
horrors of war that bind all who have borne the battle.
