Stories

“I kind of missed out on a lot of life for a 30-year period,” said U.S. Navy Veteran Daniel Collins. “Drinking affected my life, and I’m picking up the pieces now.”

Through a new and creative approach to Veterans' health care, the Sexual Health and Intimacy Group at Grand Junction VA Medical Center is helping Veterans affected by military sexual trauma.

A fourth tour in Afghanistan would change his life forever. The unthinkable happened fast for 25-year-old Marine Corps Veteran Ryan Garza. In 2011, an IED blast rocked the seven-ton truck he was riding in badly injuring his leg.

They were pioneers during a time their country needed them most, yet they were also America’s best kept secret until recently. The Women Air Force Service Pilots of World War II paved the way for women in the military today. 100 year old WASP Veteran Nell Bright is the epitome of Upholding Valor.

Throughout the VA Western Colorado Healthcare System, everyone worked tirelessly to care for our Veteran population as the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in the United States.

Eighty years later he can still hear the sirens wailing from Battleship Row. The sounds are what he remembers most from that day. That, and the fires.

As of Friday, Oct. 22, the CDC has approved a booster for Moderna and the J&J vaccine. VA Western Colorado Health Care System is working through the details and creating the plan to administer this safely to our Veterans that would like to receive it.

The grip of COVID-19 had frozen the nation. Businesses closed, residents hunkered down, and the world stopped. But for the second time in a year, VA respiratory therapist Eduardo Cardenas was running toward the danger.