Category Minority Veterans
The H Home Run: A Hero, His CalVet Home Loan, and Hispanic Heritage Month
H is for hero, and Army veteran Jose Chavez definitely qualifies. He earned a Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and other medals the only way you can get them — the hard way — in Iraq in 2009. H is also for home, which Chavez and his wife, Melissa, moved into in Sacramento County recently […]
CalVet Deputy Secretary’s Native American Military Heritage Spans 138 Years
As California Native American Day (September 27) nears, CalVet salutes the more than 13,200 Native Americans among the state’s 1.5 million military veterans and their families. Add Coby Petersen, CalVet’s deputy secretary for the Veterans Homes Division for the past decade, to the list. Petersen is a retired U.S. Army colonel, is one-quarter Navajo, and […]
The Black Civil War Veteran Who Cemented His Place in Sacramento History
Long before Marcus Langley made his reputation as a concrete contractor in Sacramento, he made history as a member of the 14th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery unit fighting for the Union during the Civil War. The 14th was formed in North Carolina, his birthplace, in 1864. Langley, a 25-year-old who listed his occupation as a […]
Blindness Spurs Army Veteran to Swing into Music
Emmanuel Hodrick lets his fingers guide him whenever he plays the electronic keyboard at the Veterans Home of California-Redding. “I find the two raised black keys—D-Flat and E-Flat—and I know Middle-C is the key to the left,” Hodrick said. As we celebrate Black History Month, CalVet honors this resilient 60-year-old Army veteran who, blind for […]
Black History Month: Col. Allen Allensworth’s Vision Highlights U.S. Veterans’ Commitment to Building Strong Communities
In 1908, Colonel Allen Allensworth came to Tulare County in the southern San Joaquin Valley to create a town where African Americans could self-govern and be independent. Born in 1842, Allensworth was 12 years old when he defied a Kentucky law that prohibited enslaved people from learning to read or write. As punishment for learning […]
WAC Vet Answered the Nation’s Call, Now Answers Veterans’ Questions at CalVet
One day during the early months of 2018, soon after she hired on as the office technician in CalVet’s Communications Division, U.S. Women’s Army Corps veteran Yulana Low handled a telephone call she will never forget. “The older brother of a young veteran couldn’t get over his brother’s death,” she said. “I believe he was […]
From One Family to Another: Kinship During Deployment Set Stage for Veteran’s Future
Liz Hargrove-Washington’s world changed in an instant during the winter of 1996. As a young staff sergeant in the Air Force stationed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, and the young mother of a baby girl, she received orders to deploy to Saudi Arabia. “It was one of the most challenging, difficult times of […]
VETERANS WELL REPRESENTED AMONG CALIFORNIA HALL OF FAME’S 2023 CLASS INDUCTEES
An Asian American woman who became a World War II Army pilot and a physicist. A World War II Army veteran who became the first openly gay man to run for public office in the United States. A Tuskegee Airman and Olympic 400 meters champion who went on to enjoy a long and successful career […]
YES, TEACHER, GRANDMA REALLY WAS A SOLDIER, SPY, GUERILLA, AND SILVER STAR RECIPIENT
As the story goes, when Corporal Magdalena “Maggie” Leones’ granddaughter wrote a report about her grandma for a school assignment, the teacher simply didn’t believe it. Believe what? Or, was the girl simply a grandchild with an overactive imagination? Prove it, the teacher told her. Prove it, Maggie’s granddaughter did. She brought the Silver Star […]
PATRICIA JACKSON KELLEY: MAKING HISTORY EVERY DAY FOR DECADES
At a recent veterans event in Los Angeles, a woman approached Patricia Jackson Kelley and offered words of appreciation. “I don’t know if you are aware of the difference you made in my life,” the woman told her, referring to a moment that occurred roughly two decades ago, when Kelley worked as a program coordinator […]
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