Category Events
CALVET TO HONOR WOMEN VETERANS WITH TRAILBLAZER AWARDS IN VIRTUAL EVENT
Four women veterans will be honored virtually on Wednesday, October 21 during the annual 2020 Women Veterans Reception taking place from 6-7:30 p.m. The veterans will be recognized for their leadership and noteworthy impact on their communities with the annual California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) Trailblazer Award. The 2020 awardees are: Cecilia Salazar of […]
DON’T MISS CALVET’S “DON’T ASK, DON’T TELL” REPEAL ANNIVERSARY WEBINAR SEPTEMBER 24
In September 2011, President Obama ended the controversial “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that for 17 years allowed LGBTQ to serve in the United States military only if they kept their sexual orientation secret and the military didn’t find out about it. The repeal of this oppressive practice enabled gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals to […]
SPIRIT OF ’45 DAY CELEBRATIONS – IN SPIRIT ONLY
Each of the past several years, the Veterans Museum at Balboa Park in San Diego honored the area’s World War II veterans on its “Spirit of ’45 Day.” In 2010, Congress designated the second Sunday of August as a day to pay tribute to the men and women who comprised the “Greatest Generation” of Americans. […]
CALVET’S WEBINARS KEEP INFORMATION FLOWING DESPITE COVID-19 CLOSURES
Over six years ago, CalVet began offering a series of webinars to provide information important to California veterans and their families. While important then, they are even more vital today. Consequently, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and effectively shut down in-person outreach and veterans events, CalVet already had the experience, technology, and audience to expand […]
MEMORIAL DAY TOOK SOME INNOVATION, TECHNOLOGY TO COMMEMORATE HOLIDAY IN VETERANS HOMES DURING COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
If necessity is, indeed, the mother of all invention, and desperate times require desperate measures, then add this new adage to the mix: COVID-19 demands innovation and imagination to maintain our traditions. Indeed, Zoom feeds replace crowded graduation ceremonies. Well-wishers now drive by to offer socially distanced birthday greetings to the recipient out on his […]
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 […]
National Guard, America’s oldest fighting force, celebrates 383rd birthday December 13
The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps celebrated their respective 244th birthdays, 28 days apart, in October and November. The U.S. Army was born on June 14 of that same year, 1775. But no American fighting force can match the longevity of the National Guard, which turns 383 years old this week. “The National Guard […]
Veterans Homes of California-Ventura will fete decade of serving veterans, spouses
Residents and staff of the Veterans Home of California-Ventura (VHC-Ventura) will mark the Home’s first decade with a Founder’s Day celebration on December 4 in Ventura. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger dedicated the Home on December 4, 2009, opening the facility and completing a project that was more than a decade in the making. It became the […]
The monumental task behind building the California Veterans Memorial at the Capitol
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. The dozens of images etched onto the California Veterans Memorial in downtown Sacramento’s Capitol Park say not only a thousand words, but might also leave visitors with a thousand questions. Who were the men and women depicted on the 28-foot-tall obelisk? Where and when did they […]
‘You’re out of uniform!’ And that’s a good thing at Operation Dress Code, where women veterans can dress for success
SAN DIEGO – Five years after leaving the U.S. Coast Guard, Franchesca Avila emerged from Central Arkansas University with a degree in family and consumer science. Then came time to get a job as a civilian. The tight budget of a new graduate didn’t leave much extra cash for the attire she needed to interview […]
