National Commander Martin F. Conatser of the American Legion will address fellow Legionnaires at luncheon Thursday with two local posts during a swing through Mississippi.

Members of the Tyner-Ford Post 213 and Allein Post 3 will hear this year’s commander at Tyner-Ford’s building at 1618 Main St. His predecessor, Paul A. Morin, spoke to Legionnaires during a visit to Vicksburg last year.

Elected in August 2007 to lead the 2.7 million-member organization, Conatser, of Champaign, Ill., has served as District, Division and Department Membership Director and Commander.

At the national level, he was on the Membership and Post Activities Committee and became its chairman in 2003. He chaired the National Legislative Commission in 2004 and 2005.

Prior to that, Conatser was a 25-year member of the Lincoln American Legion Post No. 102 in DeLand, Ill. where he served as post commander and adjutant.

He is a past member of numerous civic and veterans-related clubs, including ANAVICUS, Masonic Lodge No. 812, AMVETS Post No. 4, Egyptian Past Commanders Club and the Dads Association of the University of Illinois.

The American Legion was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a patriotic, mutual-help, wartime veterans organization. Men and women now serve in about 15,000 American Legion Posts worldwide, covering 55 departments in the United States, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, France, Mexico and the Philippines.

Its national headquarters is in Indianapolis.