Author Archives: Jeff Jardine
RESIDENTS OF VETERANS HOMES IN VENTURA CAN TALK WITH DOCS WITHOUT VENTURING AWAY FROM HOME AS COVID-19 THREAT PERVADES
With the fight to prevent the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 in full force, veterans and their spouses living in the Veterans Home of California-Ventura (VHC-Ventura) can greatly reduce their risk of exposure, thanks to the Home’s participation in the TeleHealth Program. With the doctor live online in his or her office, and the resident […]
FORMER CALVET UNDERSECRETARY UMBERG HELPED MAKE HISTORY AS ARMY’S CULTURE INVOLVING WOMEN BEGAN TO CHANGE IN 1970’s
As we continue to celebrate Women’s History Month, the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) can look in its own storied history to find women who have made great contributions in the military, and to the agency itself. Retired Brigadier General Robin Umberg is one of them. She broke ground for other women in the […]
RETIRED ARMY NURSE, WOMEN VETERANS ADVOCATE HAS STORY TO TELL EVEN THOUGH VIETNAM WAR VETERANS DAY EVENT NIXED BY COVID-19
Kate O’Hare-Palmer planned to come to the California Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Sacramento on Sunday for what she and other Vietnam veterans has seen grow into an annual day of respect. Instead, the former Army nurse, who chairs the Vietnam Veterans Association of America’s Women Veterans Committee, will stay home in Petaluma like other Californians […]
WOMEN VETERANS GETTING HELP FROM A VET WHO KNOWS A THING OR TWO ABOUT MINEFIELDS IN TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE
For a significant portion of her career in the U.S. Marine Corps, Jodie Grenier collected and used information about enemy threats in order to minimize the danger to her fellow troops in Iraq. That included knowing whether and where minefields and weapon systems existed. “My job, essentially, was to collect information to mitigate threats to […]
AWARD-WINNING VETERANS CEMETERY AT SEASIDE BREAKING GROUND ON EXPANSION THAT WILL OFFER IN-GROUND BURIALS
SEASIDE – Since the California Central Coast Veterans Cemetery opened in 2016, only the columbaria for cremains has been available at the 79-acre property that once was part of the Fort Ord Army base. That will change in 2021, when Phase II is completed and in-ground burials can begin at the cemetery operated by the […]
COLD NIGHT IN FRANCE BEGAN MEDICAL, MILITARY MARCH ACROSS EUROPE IN WWII FOR ARMY NURSE, NOW 100
FRESNO – In the fall of 1944, just a few months after the Normandy invasion, Jane Boote endured a night she’s never forgotten. “That first night in France was the coldest night of my life,” the 100-year-old Army veteran and career nurse recalled. “The GIs thought they were doing us a favor by giving us […]
IT’S A WRAP: VETERANS GETTING NEW HOMES ON “EXTREME MAKEOVER: HOME EDITION” SHOW AIRING SUNDAY, MARCH 15
A partnership between the California Department of Veterans Affairs Residential Enriched Neighborhood Program (CalVet REN), the city of Palmdale, and Homes 4 Families Veteran Enriched Neighborhoods® that provides homes to military veterans, will be featured at 8 p.m. Sunday in an episode of HGTV Channel’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition”. “This is an amazing partnership and […]
HOSPITAL AT CALIFORNIA ARMY BASE HONORS ONLY WOMAN TO RECEIVE MEDAL OF HONOR
At Fort Irwin, in California’s Mojave Desert, the Dr. Mary E. Walker Center is an administrative building that is part of the Weed Army Community Hospital system. The hospital system serves a military and civilian population of nearly 10,000. One day each December, hundreds of soldiers from Fort Irwin’s 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment march up […]
PIONEER, TRAILBLAZER: VIRGINIA MAE DAYS WAS ONE OF A KIND AS CALVET DIRECTOR
NOTE: As we honor women veterans during Women’s History Month, CalVet remembers one of its own. The late Virginia Mae Days served as CalVet’s director from 1975-81, retiring more than a decade before CalVet became a cabinet level department headed by a secretary. Her story, published on CalVet Connect last fall, bears repeating. In a […]
HOW VIRTUAL REALITY BENEFITS CALVET HOMES RESIDENTS
Virtual reality (VR) can give memory care patients in CalVet homes a look back into their lives or help them see the world. Robert, a 90-year-old Navy veteran, peered into a pair of goggles and saw the Great Wall of China in all of its VR glory. “I’ve been there,” he said. “The Great Wall […]
