Published November 1988 — Download PDF of the original newspaper column
Byrd's-Eye View By U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd Increased Services for West Virginia Military Veterans Throughout my career in Congress, I have been committed to increasing the services available to the thousands of military veterans in West Virginia. In fulfillment of that continuing commitment, and as a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, I have acted to provide better and increased benefits to West Virginia's veterans. In October, for example, I joined in breaking ground for the seven-story clinical addition to the Veterans Administration (VA) Medical Center in Huntington, a project for which I helped secure $50.8 million in federal funds. Likewise, I helped to obtain $25.9 million in federal funds to construct a clinical addition and undertake major improvements at the Clarksburg VA Medical Center. I also helped to secure $15.7 million for a clinical addition to the VA Hospital in Beckley. These expansions and improvements are in addition to the nearly $75 million that I obtained in the late 1970's to construct the Martinsburg VA Medical Center, and will enable the VA medical centers in our state better to meet the health needs of West Virginia veterans. I also obtained federal funds to establish special counseling centers in Charleston, Morgantown, and Martinsburg, with a satellite center in Huntington. These centers offer vocational and personal counseling, as well as referral services where needed, for Vietnam-era and other veterans. This past year, in order to ease the burden on the Charleston center, I won approval of new Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Counseling Centers in Beckley and Princeton, with an outreach center in Logan. West Virginia Vietnam-era veterans wishing to contact these centers, or seeking to obtain information from them on the services that they provide, can use the following telephone numbers: Charleston: 343-3825 Martinsburg: 263-6776 Morgantown: 291-4001 or 4002 Huntington: 523-8387 Beckley: 252-8220 Princeton: 425-5653 Logan: 752-6868 Our country is indebted to the men and women who have enlisted in America's armed forces. I shall continue working to see that America keeps faith with West Virginia's veterans for the sacrifices that they have made for all of us. November 23, 1988