The office will be located on the the campus of the historic VA Medical Center off Liscum Drive and West Third Street. The site originally served as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers following the Civil War.
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The National VA History Center is tentatively set for a 2025 opening based on public funding availability and private fundraising, the federal government said.
“VA is one of the few cabinet-level agencies without an official history office,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said in an announcement. “The new office will allow the department to document the special relationship between the nation and our Veterans.”
Members of the regional’s congressional delegation welcomed the news.
“The Dayton VA Medical Center was one of our first disabled soldiers’ homes established by President Abraham Lincoln,” U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, said in a statement jointly released with fellow Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and Rob Portman, a Republican. “I am proud that we are finally seeing this commitment come to fruition and that Dayton will be the hub of researching, organizing, and preserving the VA’s history.”
“”Brown, Portman, Turner, and Davidson have been working for years to make the History Center in Dayton a reality,” the legislators’ statement said Friday. “In August 2018, the members of the Ohio delegation penned a letter to VA noting that this partnership would not only help honor our nation’s service members, but also bring greater economic development and tourism to the area.”
“The vision is to promote understanding and study of the unique relationship between the United States and its veterans through the lens of the VA experience — the care of wounds, the benefits bestowed, the contributions of veterans to society after serving, and the honors provided at their passing,” the VA said.
When functional, the office will research and respond to inquiries regarding VA history.
Two historic buildings on the Dayton campus campus were previously identified for use as a central museum and archive for the VA. The department is partnering with the VA History Center Foundation to fund renovations for the historic buildings.
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