Author Archives: Jeff Jardine
Navy Veteran Brings Hot Food, Warm Conversations to Residents at CalVet’s Yountville Home
Joe Raudales decided it was time for a change. His five years in the U.S. Navy included tours of duty in Japan and the Persian Gulf. He served aboard an amphibious ship off the coast of Somalia, and saw duty as an air traffic controller before he separated in 1996. He then spent 23 years […]
CalVet Agents Cut Through Red Tape to Cut Home Loan Deal for Paradise Veteran
(This story first appeared as a Guest Perspective in the State Treasurer’s Office November newsletter.) By the spring of 2023, Navy veteran Sue Bone had given up hope on buying a new home. After her home in Paradise vanished in a wall of flames during the Camp Fire of 2018, she found herself up against […]
Home Is Where the Veteran Is for CalVet’s New West Los Angeles Administrator
As the new administrator, Stephanie Weaver’s goal for the Veterans Home of California-West Los Angeles really is quite simple. “I could end up as a resident here someday,” said Weaver, appointed to the post by Governor Gavin Newsom in September. “I want it to be the best Home in the system. I want for them […]
Securing Embassies, Guarding a President, and Protecting Veterans Education Benefits
Richard Charron spent 30 years in the U.S. Marine Corps protecting everything from classified documents at embassies, to fellow Marines, and even an American president. Today, as an education specialist with CalVet’s California Approving Agency for Veterans Education (CSAAVE), Charron protects veterans by ensuring that the schools who recruit veterans using their Post-9/11 GI Bill […]
What in the Worlds? Civil War Veteran and Journalist’s Close Encounter with ‘Martians’ Near Lodi in 1896
On the eve of Halloween in 1938, Orson Welles mystified six million American listeners with his radio spoof of “War of The Worlds,” based upon H.G. Wells’ novel by the same name and published 40 years earlier. Vanity Fair magazine in 2015 called the broadcast “the world’s first viral fake-news media event.” Ever since that […]
From Supporting a U-2 Plane to Supporting Veterans at Yountville Home
In October 2003, the U.S. Air Force sent then-Staff Sgt. Miguel Vargas to the United Arab Emirates in support of a U-2 spy plane hunting down the terrorists involved in the September 11 attacks. “We worked 12-hour shifts, and following one of the reconnaissance missions I participated in, the lead pilot told us we found […]
Helping Veterans Know Their Benefits Is Like A Family Affair for CalTAP Training Coordinator
Jennifer Rudquist recalls her arrival at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas on Thanksgiving Day 1996. Now the recruiting trainer with CalVet’s California Transition Assistance Program (CalTAP), she stepped off a bus that day, into basic training and her brave new world.
Air Force Veteran Brings Security and More to State’s Oldest Veterans Home
After the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began more than two decades ago, newspapers and local television stations loved covering stories about servicemembers who returned home to surprise their kids at school. They still do. Those heartwarming moments of reunion and joy can soften the hearts of even the most war-hardened folks. B.G. Sick, now […]
First Time Buyer in Awe with CalVet Home Loans Team to the Letter
Another satisfied veteran, another CalVet Home Loans success story. Frequently, CalVet Home Loan agents receive “thank-you” notes, flowers, or letters from veterans whom they’ve helped achieve the dream of homeownership. This one, from U.S. Navy veteran Stephanie Barker of Sacramento, to CalVet Property Agent Adam Cone and his team that includes home loans processor Jamie […]
Oorah! Marine Veteran Brings Calming Conversation to Fresno Home
It happens frequently when Samuel Tejeda strolls through the Veterans Home of California-Fresno. “One resident … every time he sees me, he yells ‘Oorah!’” said Tejeda. “He’ll see me in the hallway and yell it, and I’ll yell it back.” After all, that is the Marine battle cry or greeting, and once a Marine, always […]
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