Howard Young was front and center Monday morning as a host of dignitaries took to the podium to celebrate the groundbreaking for a new, larger VA outpatient clinic in Savannah.
“This is a great day for all of Savannah,” said the 90-year-old World War II veteran, who volunteers every week at the current clinic. “We need this.”
From Young, who served in the Pacific theater, to Ed Barsness, a former Navy chief petty officer who served in the Persian Gulf, the veterans community turned out to watch as U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Pooler, and others turned dirt at the 9-acre site on Shawnee Street, signifying the beginning of construction on the 55,000-square-foot facility that will include 15 primary care teams and include additional services in the areas of telehealth, general radiology, CT scans, compensation and pension exams and prosthetics.
The Savannah area has a veteran population of 25,000 people, more than 13,000 of them currently receiving services from the local VA clinic.
In his keynote address, Isakson, who chairs the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, said America is the greatest country in the world because of the service and sacrifice of its veterans.
“We don’t owe our veterans something,” he said. “We owe them everything.”
The new clinic is expected to be complete in the summer of 2016.