Category History
VIETNAM WAR VETERANS DAY: FOUR FRESNO VETERANS, FOUR DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
One went to Vietnam as an advisor, years before American forces went en masse. One had the greatest peanut butter and jelly sandwich of his life while manning a gun mount on a destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf. One tended to Vietnam War wounded at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. And another spent […]
TIME CAPSULE BOX FOR NEW SKILLED NURSING FACILITY PROJECT IN BEST OF HANDS
YOUNTVILLE – On one recent afternoon, Gordon Kirby, with a steady hand and a thin saw blade, cut a notch in a thick piece of deodor cedar destined to become a footstool or small bench. The 75-year-old Navy veteran spends his days in the woodshop of the Creative Arts Center at the Veterans Home of […]
TWO WOMEN VETERAN INNOVATORS LEFT THEIR MARKS ON YOUNTVILLE VETERANS HOME
As construction begins in earnest on the new $269 million skilled nursing facility at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville, CalVet recognizes and remembers two remarkable women who left their imprints on the 138-year-old campus. Mary Dunaway helped it grow in the 1950s. Virginia Mae Days, the only woman to lead the California Department of Veterans […]
SEABEES BUILDING BASES, ROADS, AIRSTRIPS, AND REPUTATION FOR PAST 80 YEARS
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor drew the United States officially into World War II, the Navy determined it would need to build bases, roads, and airstrips in combat zones – and at warp speed. But who would build them? Civilian contractors who built facilities at Wake Island were captured by Japanese soldiers 15 days […]
HOW DID YOU DO? GRADE YOURSELF ON CALVET’S PRESIDENTS DAY QUIZ
Yesterday, we offered our Presidents Day challenge: 10 questions to test your knowledge of U.S. presidents who served in some form of the military, from militias to decorated careers. Here are those questions again, with the answers:
IN UNIFORM, IN OFFICE: TEST YOURSELF ON PRESIDENTS WHO SERVED IN MILITARY
With Presidents Day upon us, how well do you know your American presidents? Of the 46 U.S. presidents thus far, 31 performed some form of military service, from militias to decorated career. Of those 31, one was born in California. Three served during the Revolutionary War, four in the War of 1812, six in the […]
‘RUPTURED DUCK’ HONORABLE DISCHARGE PINS FINDING LAPELS IN CALVET’S VETERANS HOMES
A few weeks ago, the Veterans Home of California-Ventura received a phone call from Lou Zayas, junior commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart chapter in Georgia. Zayas wanted to know the number of World War II veterans living at the Ventura Home. He wanted to send each one a “Ruptured Duck” lapel […]
USO CELEBRATES 81 YEARS OF ENTERTAINING TROOPS, BRINGING HOPE, AND BOOSTING MORALE
Eighty-one years ago today, at the behest of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, six social service organizations joined forces to create the United Service Organizations, or USO. With America’s entry into World War II still 10 months away. Those organizations—the Salvation Army, Young Men’s Christian Association, Young Women’s Christian Association, National Catholic Community Services, National Travelers […]
CALVET HONORS STATE’S ONLY BLACK MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT FROM VIETNAM WAR
As we enter Black History Month, CalVet pays homage to Pvt. 1st Class James Anderson Jr., California’s only Black Medal of Honor recipient from the Vietnam War. His memory graces the Medal of Honor Wall at CalVet headquarters in Sacramento. Born January 22, 1947, in Los Angeles, Anderson graduated from Compton’s Centennial High School in […]
SIGNED 49 YEARS AGO TODAY, PARIS PEACE ACCORDS BEGAN THE AMERICAN EXIT FROM VIETNAM
On January 27, 1973, representatives from the United States, South Vietnam, and North Vietnam signed the documents known as the Paris Peace Accords, which spelled out the U.S.’s exit from South Vietnam to end the war. By that time, the U.S. had been involved in Vietnam for 18 years, beginning with military advisers in 1955. […]
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