Welcome
Welcome
to the Marine Corps League, Stelpflug Detachment website. Please follow the links to
learn more about our detachment, our activities and the Marine Corps League in general. The current web layout is a new one and all of the files are not uploaded as yet. Please check back periodically.
Getting Involved
The Stelpflug Detachment
currently has 30 regular
members and 6 associate members located throughout East Central Alabama. Most of our members reside in Lee County, but we do have several outside the county. Our detachment was chartered on November 14, 2000. Our detachment is named in honor of Lance Corporal William John "Billy" Stelpflug. Billy was killed in the Beirut bombing on October 23, 1983 along with 240 fellow Marines and U.S. servicemen. For a more detailed
biography of Billy, see the link in the left menu.
Qualifications: If you served as a Marine for more than 90 days, and the character of your service has been honorable, and if discharged, that you are in receipt of an honorable discharge, then
you are eligible for membership in the MarineCorps League.
The normal dues for membership are $30.00 initally per year, and renewals are $20.00. Lifetime memberships are available. Dues are scheduled to increase in January 2007.
Mission Statement
Members of the Marine Corps League join together in camaraderie and
fellowship for the purpose of preserving the traditions and promoting
the interests of the United States Marine Corps, banding together those
who are now serving in the United States Marine Corps and those who
have been honorably discharged from that service that they may
effectively promote the ideals of American freedom and democracy,
voluntarily aiding and rendering assistance to all Marines and former
Marines and to their widows and orphans; and to perpetuate the history
of the United States Marine Corps and by fitting acts to observe the
anniversaries of historical occasions of particular interest to
Marines.
History
The Marine Corps League takes pride in its Federal Charter, approved by An Act of the Seventy-Fifth Congress of the United States of America and signed and approved by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on August 4, 1937. The League is the only Federally Chartered Marine Corps related veterans organization in the country. Since its earliest days, the Marine Corps League has enjoyed the support and encouragement of the active
duty and Reserve establishments of the U. S. Marine Corps. Today, the League boasts a membership of nearly 61,000 men and women, officer and enlisted, active duty, Reserve Marines, honorably discharged Marine Veterans and qualified Navy FMF Corpsmen and is one of the few Veterans Organizations that experiences increases in its membership each year.
The Marine Corps League is headed by an elected National Commandant, with 14 elected national staff officers who serve as trustees. Day to day operations are under the control of an executive director who supervises the day-to-day performance of the national headquarters staff, located at 8626 Lee Highway in Fairfax, Virginia.
The prime authority of the League is derived from its charter and from its annual national convention held in August in different major U. S. cities throughout the nation. The National Commandant has operational control over the National Headquarters staff and the National Board of Trustees, who in turn coordinate the efforts of 45 department, or State entities, and the activities of over 780 community-based
detachments located throughout the United States and overseas