Contact: Ramona E. Joyce, 202-263-2982, 202-445-1161; Joe March, 317-630-1253, 317-748-1926, both of the American Legion.

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 7 /Standard Newswire/ -- The following is a statement by American Legion National Commander Paul A. Morin:

Recently I was accused of lying about my military service in a piece of shoddy journalism published by the Boston Globe.

Let me set the record straight: I served two years during the Vietnam War at Fort Dix, N.J., as a supply specialist and field lineman in the U.S. Army, and got an Honorable Discharge in 1974. I am proud of my military service. I did my duty, and I was willing to go anywhere and do anything my country asked of me. However, Fort Dix, N.J., is where they needed me.

I went home to Chicopee, proud to be a veteran. People referred to me as a "Vietnam Veteran" just as they referred to my elders as "World War II veterans and Korean War veterans" regardless of where they served.

The Massachusetts law that determined veterans preference, for which I was eligible, stated that anyone who served honorably during the designated period for 180 days or more was a "Vietnam Veteran." There was no mention of "Vietnam-era Veteran." Likewise, The American Legion made no distinction among veterans when I joined, nor do they today.

So, over the course of some 30 years, I have seen myself described as -- and I have described myself as -- "a Vietnam veteran," "a Vietnam-era veteran," "an Army veteran of the Vietnam War," "a military veteran," and "a Vietnam veteran who served at Fort Dix."

I believe each of those descriptions to be accurate. And I note: I have never described myself as, or let anyone describe me as: "a combat veteran of Vietnam."

Now, because of the Boston Globe article, I stand accused of trying to pad my resume by insinuating that my service was more than it really was. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am humbled to lead The American Legion and never in my wildest dreams did I think my fellow veterans -- all of whom know my record -- would accord me this high honor.

However, I have always been willing to serve wherever I could, and I have dedicated my life to serving veterans and their families. As the leader of the world's largest veterans organization, I often times speak of our collective as "we," such as "when we returned from Vietnam." I consider it a figure of speech, no more deceitful than "when we went to the moon," or "when we were bombed at Pearl Harbor." I did not say, "When I returned from Vietnam," nor have I ever implied that I did.

If you will carefully check my record, you will find that I have never made a secret of where I served or what I did during the Vietnam War. Lying about my service would gain me absolutely nothing -- not better benefits, not more recognition, not more honor.

The 3,000 delegates at The American Legion National Convention who elected me as their National Commander were all fully aware of my wartime service in the military as well as my peacetime service as a civilian.

This newspaper report, as far as I'm concerned, is nothing more than a sensationalistic account of a startlingly obvious fact: I served at Fort Dix during the Vietnam War -- something I have never denied. My life history was published in the October issue of The American Legion Magazine at my direction. It plainly states my military record. Why would one purporting to be a combat veteran broadcast to the world that he was not?

I am sorry this issue has come up. I am sorry that dozens of newspapers have reported it in various ways. I am sorry that some of my fellow veterans now believe that I lied about my service. Such is the power of the media. There is nothing I can do but stand on my record and my reputation, while I continue to work on behalf of America's 26 million veterans and their families. That's also something I'm proud to do.