The United States Department of Veteran’s Affairs provides government-run benefits for veterans and their families.
While the VA in its current form has only been around since 1930, the country’s history of providing for disabled veterans goes back to before the U.S. was even a country.
In 1636, the European settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony were at war with the Pequot tribe. The colony passed a law then that stated it would support any disabled soldiers from that war. And we have provided for our veterans in some form ever since.
Today, among the services the VA administers include mortgages, the GI Bill, burial benefits and healthcare. And its VA hospitals are probably the most recognizable part of the VA system for civilians.
"We treat about 64,000 veterans a year. We have about 4,000 employees, about 250 acres. And essentially we provide pretty much the entire gamut of healthcare," says Dr. Dan Zomcheck, the new director of theZablocki VA Medical Center, located just south of Miller Park off National Avenue.
