FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           

June 15, 2007

VA Medical Centers Extending Hours

Change Benefits New Combat Veterans, Older Vets

WASHINGTON -- In order to provide more health care for more veterans, especially mental health services, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson has directed the 153 medical centers of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to keep their doors open longer.

“Illness doesn’t follow a 9-to-5 schedule,” Nicholson said. “I’m directing our medical centers to provide extended hours to ensure we’re there for the veterans who have earned our care.”

Although the extra hours apply to many hospital-based programs and services, Nicholson said his latest decision was based upon a desire to ensure VA’s more than 9,000 mental health professionals are available when veterans need them.

VA operates the largest integrated health care system in the country and the nation’s largest mental health program.  About 5.5 million veterans are expected to seek health care from VA’s nationwide system this year, accounting for about 800,000 hospitalizations and 60 million outpatient visits.

In recent months, Nicholson has announced a number of initiatives to improve mental health care for returning combat veterans, including the hiring of suicide prevention coordinators for each medical center, 100 new adjustment counselors for VA’s 207 Vet Centers, and 100 new medical center employees to serve as advocates for the severely wounded.

VA’s mental health experts will gather in Washington in July for a four-day conference reassessing the Department’s programs for veterans, especially veterans from the conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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VA Searching for Last Doughboys of World War I

Only Four Believed Still Alive

WASHINGTON (April 4, 2007) -- With the number of known living American veterans of World War I now standing at four, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is seeking public assistance in determining whether others are still alive.

“These veterans have earned the gratitude and respect of the nation,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson. “We are coming to the end of a generation that helped bring the United States to the center of the international arena.”

Nicholson noted that VA usually knows about the identity and location of veterans only after they come to the Department for benefits.  None of the four known surviving World War I veterans has been on the VA benefits rolls.

The Secretary asks members of the general public who know of a surviving World War I veteran to contact VA.  To qualify as a World War I veteran, someone must have been on active duty between April 6, 1917 and Nov. 11, 1918.  VA is also looking for surviving Americans who served in the armed forces of allied nations.

Information about survivors can be e-mailed to ww1@va.gov; faxed to 202-273-6702, or mailed to the Office of Public Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs (80),

810 Vermont Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20420.

About 4.7 million men and women served in the U.S. armed forces during World War I.  About 53,000 died in combat, with another 204,000 wounded.

The four known surviving World War I veterans are John Babcock, 102, from Puget Sound, Wash.; Frank Buckles, 106, Charles Town, W.Va.; Russell Coffey, 108, North Baltimore, Ohio; and Harry Landis, 107, Sun City Center, Fla. 

Babcock is an American who served in the Canadian Army.  The other three survivors were in the U.S. Army.