Veterans home key issue for new chief

Wednesday, June 16, 1999 | 10:36 a.m.

The new chief of the state's Veterans Services Commission says his key goals will be on-time completion of the veterans home in Boulder City and reaching a consensus on a 2001 veterans legislative package.

Ray Alcorn, a 30-year veteran of the Navy, who during the Vietnam War was a prisoner at the infamous prisoner of war camp known as the Hanoi Hilton, will be introduced at Saturday's commission meeting in Carson City.

The 10 a.m. meeting will be teleconferenced to the Sawyer State Office Building, room 4412, at 555 E. Washington Ave.

"Certainly the construction of the veterans home is one of our most important issues," Alcorn said, noting that the report from Nevada Veterans Home Administrator Jon Sias will include an outline of activities planned for the July 10 groundbreaking.

"We are expecting the construction to be complete by March 2000, and we hope to start putting veterans in the home by that July."

The facility will provide nursing care for aging and ailing veterans who cannot afford private group home care.

"The home is important because the general veterans population is getting up in age, especially the World War II veterans, and as a result there will be many more in need of health care services," Alcorn, 59, of Carson City, said.

"My primary goal is to get a consensus of the five items that are most important to veterans in this state and work out a strong legislative package for the next session."

Alcorn said he is sending a letter to all of the state's major veterans organizations asking them to have their members submit issues to their state presidents. He then plans to meet with those leaders and hammer out the five most important items based on a consensus of the veterans population.

Alcorn was a naval aviator who flew A-4s and A-7s off aircraft carriers. He was captured by the North Vietnamese and survived seven years as a POW. He has been a resident of Nevada for four years.

Other items on Saturday's agenda include the homeless veterans issue, updates on the Northern and Southern Nevada veterans cemeteries and a report on the state's Veterans Affairs clinics and Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital.