Forty & Eight

The Forty & Eight was organized in 1920 by American Legionnaires as a fund and honor society. Now composed of veterans of both World Wars and the Korean, Vietnam, and Desert Storm conflicts, it draws its origin from World War I when young Americans were sent to France to fight a war to end all wars. The narrow gauge railroads of France had boxcars that carried little more than half the capacity of American boxcars and the French boxcars were used to transport the men and horses to and from the fighting fronts. On these boxcars was stenciled the capacity of each, holding either forty men or eight horses, and this became the trademark of the Forty & Eight veterans’ organization. If one could laugh at the train ride from the coast of France to the trenches crowded in these little boxcars only recently vacated by eight horses, one could surely adapt to the chances in his life when he returned home. Membership in the Forty & Eight is by invitation only for recognition of service to the American Legion and/or its programs.
In 1955, the Forty & Eight formally established its Nurses Training Program to promote the health of our nation. In 1963, the Nurses Training Program sponsored 2,129 nurses’ scholarships.