America faces a tidal wave of aging military veterans
By Sonner Kehrt, The War Horse
Jun 2, 06:00 AM
Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on The War Horse, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service. Subscribe to their newsletter.
For decades, dawn brought the clarion bugle call of reveille across the lush campus of the Veterans Home of California in Yountville, 60 miles north of San Francisco. The residents, the earliest among them veterans of the Mexican-American war, rose early and dressed in strict accordance with a uniform-like code.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the veterans home was a working farm, with chickens, pigs, and a whole herd of cattle, along with apple, peach, and plum orchards. The men spent long days tending to the animals and working the land. The labor was believed to be restorative, giving order and purpose to generations of veterans suffering from what would soon become known as “shell shock.”
Nearly 150 years later, the facility is still in operation. After years of funding and other challenges — one inspection in 2016 found 14 separate fire safety deficiencies — investments in the home have ensured its future continuing to care for California’s veterans. No longer a working farm, the campus is home to more than 1,000 veterans, most of them elderly, with levels of support ranging from independent living to skilled nursing. Today, the campus hums with activity, as construction equipment reshapes the nation’s largest veteran home into one that can effectively and compassionately meet the changing needs of the state’s aging veteran population.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/veterans/2023/06/02/america-faces-a-tidal-wave-of-aging-military-veterans/
