Membership Medals and VFW Pride

Many members of the VFW wear pins in their caps and on their jackets.  Some commemorate their service, others are specific to a certain commander, and so on.  But did you know that a long time ago in VFW history members simply wore a VFW membership badge?  I'm hoping to bring back the tradition of the membership badge to show pride in who we are.  To that end, I've commissioned [with VFW approval of course] a company to make membership badges based on the ones worn over a hundred years ago!  They recently arrived and here's a sample:

Illinois Senior Vice Commander Bobby Welch has done yeoman work researching the history of badges in the VFW and has accumulated a large collection of memorabilia. The lineage of the VFW as we know it can be summed up in the photo below, with these two cases of medals.

The small case on the left is a membership medal and lapel pin for the American Veterans of Foreign Service (AVFS), founded in 1899. This is the founding organization of the VFW, all the other organizations merged into the AVFS to eventually become the VFW. There were two separate branches of the AVFS...Columbus, OH and Altoona, PA. This medal is the Columbus branch. The two merged in 1905. The case on the right has a Membership medal for the National Society Army of the Philippines (NSAP) founded in 1899, a card from Bailey, Banks & Biddle (the sole maker of the medal), and a 5th reunion button for the society from 1905.

 In 1913 the two groups merged, then officially adopted the name Veterans of Foreign Wars in 1914. The membership medal for the VFW was adopted from the NSAP and this is why we have the Cross of Malta we have today.

Below is a sample of Comrade Welch's collection of the many VFW membership badges and styles over the 120 plus years of our organization.