The American Legion Preview and Review

This Months Launch of the The American Legion Blog reminds us of the brave veterans living and dead to whom we owe a debt that can never be truely repaid.

Please take a moment to visit their new home on the net, look, listen and learn.

The founder of the American Legion was the late Col. Ernest Lester Jones, who served in the First Army Air Service overseas during World War I, and later became the director of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. It was Col. Jones’ idea that memories of the comradeship and sacrifices made by those who participated in World War I should be perpetuated through a national veterans organization, and he called a small group together in the Cosmos Club on February 5, 1919, and plans were discussed.

A call was sent out on February 23, 1919, for a caucus to be held in the Cosmos Club, of which Col. Jones was an active member, and on March 7, 1919, a caucus was held in the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club with 375 veterans responding and participating in the activities of the meeting.

It was decided at this caucus not to form any permanent organization because a large number of veterans were still overseas, but to organize the first unit and elect officers, which was done. Col. Jones was unanimously elected the first commander of the unit, which was named “General Pershing Post, No. 1,” in honor of his close friend, Gen. John J. Pershing, with whom he served overseas. At the request of the unit, Col. Jones sent the following telegram next day to Gen. Pershing:

“I have the honor to inform you that on March 7 the first veteran post of the World War was organized in the Nation’s Capital, which was unanimously named General Pershing Post, No. 1, Delegates were named to confer with representatives from our forces overseas, looking toward early formation of national organization.

“E. Lester Jones, “Colonel, Air Service.”

On March 15, 1919, eight days after the caucus at the Cosmos Club, a representative group of officers and men who were still overseas held a caucus in Paris, France, and the name “American Legion” was tentatively adopted.

A committee representing the overseas veterans came to the United States and joined a like committee and plans were formulated for holding a caucus in St. Louis, Mo., on May 8, 9 and 10, 1919.

Col. E. Lester Jones headed the first delegation which attended the St. Louis caucus.

There was adopted, among other things at the St. Louis caucus, the “preamble” to the constitution of the American Legion which has made that organization famous the world over. The groundwork for this preamble was drafted by Col. Jones, chairman of the District delegation, and was formally presented by the delegation to the caucus. A comparison of his original manuscript with the present preamble shows how his original ideas were embodied in the preamble as finally adopted. Also at the St. Louis caucus authority was granted the District to form a department, and on May 19, 1919, at a largely attended meeting in Central High School, Col. Jones was unanimously elected the first department commander in the history of the American Legion. George Washington Post holds “Charter No. 1" in the national organization and the Department of the District of Columbia holds “Department Charter No. 1.”

As a memorial to the late Col. E. Lester Jones, George Washington Post, No. 1, American Legion, formally presented a bronze plaque to the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in January, 1940. The presentation was made by the late Maj. Wallace Streator.

It was the wish of George Washington Post, No. 1, that this plaque be installed or unveiled in the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey tender E. Lester Jones with appropriate ceremonies and with representatives of a Seattle (Wash.) American Legion post in attendance. Present on the occasion were various members of George Washington Post, No. 1, Miss Cecil Lester Jones, daughter of the late Col. Jones; Col. J. M. Johnson, and several Coast and Geodetic Survey officers on duty in the Washington office.

The plaque was installed in the Wardroom of the tender E. Lester Jones with appropriate ceremonies and with representatives of a Seattle American Legion Post participating.

MARY ETHEL KNOTTS, U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Washington.

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Least Dense Crystals in alternative energy technologies

Chemists at UCLA Design the Least Dense Crystals Known to Man for Applications in Clean Energy

Chemists at UCLA have designed new organic structures for the storage of voluminous amounts of gases for use in alternative energy technologies.

The research, to be published on April 13 in the journal Science, demonstrates how the design principles of reticular chemistry have been used to create three-dimensional covalent organic frameworks, which are entirely constructed from strong covalent bonds and have high thermal stability,

high surface areas and extremely low densities.

The team of researchers comprises chemists from the Center for Reticular Chemistry at UCLA's California NanoSystems Institute and the departments of chemistry and biochemistry at UCLA.

Led by Omar Yaghi, UCLA professor of chemistry and biochemistry, the team has developed a class of materials in which components can be changed nearly at will. Reticular chemistry, the brainchild of Yaghi, is the chemistry of linking molecular building blocks by strong bonds into predetermined structures. The principles of reticular chemistry and the ability to construct chemical structures from these molecular building blocks has led to the creation of new classes of materials of exceptional variety.

The covalent organic frameworks, or COFs (pronounced "coffs"), one of these new classes of materials, are the first crystalline porous organic networks. A member of this series, COF-108, has the lowest density reported of any crystalline material.

"These are the first materials ever made in which the organic building blocks are linked by strong bonds to make covalent organic frameworks," Yaghi said. "The key is that COFs are composed of light elements, such as boron, carbon and oxygen, which provide thermal stability and great functionality."

COF-108, the latest advance in reticular chemistry development, has a high surface area, with more than 4,500 meters per gram.

"One gram, unraveled, could cover the surface area of approximately 30 tennis courts," Yaghi said.

In the push to develop methods to control greenhouse gas emissions, some of the biggest challenges have been finding ways to store hydrogen for use as a fuel, to use methane as an alternative fuel, and to capture and store carbon dioxide from power plant smokestacks before it reaches the atmosphere. Yaghi and his colleagues believe COFs are uniquely suited for all these applications because of their functional flexibility and their extremely light weight and high porosity.

Through reticular chemistry, Yaghi has developed a process whereby it is possible to utilize the arsenal of organic building blocks to construct a large number of new COF structures whose components can be easily designed to suit a particular application. The pore size and pore functionality of these materials can be varied at will.

Yaghi, whose research overlaps chemistry, materials science and engineering, is a member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at UCLA, which encourages cross-disciplinary collaboration to solve problems in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Yaghi is also the director of the Center for Reticular Chemistry at the CNSI.

"I have long been interested in making materials in a rational way," Yaghi said. "At the beginning of my career, I always thought it should be possible to create a predetermined chemical structure by linking together well-defined molecules as building blocks, just as an architect creates a blueprint prior to construction on buildings."

A year ago, Yaghi made national headlines when he and his team at UCLA, along with colleagues at the University of Michigan, conducted research that could lead to a hydrogen fuel that powers not only cars but laptop computers, cellular phones, digital cameras and other electronic devices. The findings were reported in the Journal of the American Chemical Society in March 2006.

The materials used in that research, invented by Yaghi in the early 1990s, are called metal-organic frameworks, or MOFs, which have been described as crystal sponges. These frameworks have nanoscale-size openings, or pores, in which Yaghi and his colleagues can store gases — such as hydrogen and methane — that are generally difficult to store and transport.

BASF, a global chemical company based in Germany, has licensed the technology and is moving forward on commercialization of MOFs.

In the fall of 2006, Yaghi was named one of the "Brilliant 10" by Popular Science magazine, which described him as a "hydrogen nano-architect" whose "research papers rank among the most influential in his field." At the age of 42, Yaghi is already ranked No. 22 on the list of the Top 100 most-cited chemists by Thomson Scientific.

The research was funded by BASF, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy.

For more on Yaghi's research, visit Omar M. Yaghi Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, UCLA.

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) is a multidisciplinary research center at UCLA whose mission is to encourage university–industry collaboration and to enable the rapid commercialization of discoveries in nanosystems. CNSI members include some of the world's preeminent scientists, and the work conducted at the institute represents world-class expertise in five targeted areas of nanosystems-related research: renewable energy, environmental nanotechnology and nanotoxicology, nanobiotechnology and biomaterials, nanomechanical and nanofluidic systems, and nanoelectronics, photonics and architectonics. The institute is home to eight core facilities that will serve both academic and industry collaborations. For additional information, visit California NanoSystems Institute.

UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 37,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 300 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Contact: Jennifer Marcus jmarcus@cnsi.ucla.edu 310-267-4839 University of California - Los Angeles

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