The more days that turned into weeks, which then evolved into months and stretched into years since the September 2020 groundbreaking for the new Sallisaw Veterans Center, the more impatient the community and veterans who would reside in the state-of-the-art facility became.

But on June 5, the day many had long anticipated — “a pretty exciting day; a long time in the making” — finally arrived. Veterans began arriving to become residents at the sprawling 215,000-square-foot center that offers 175 private rooms, along with skilled nursing, memory care and an onsite medical team.

“We are proud and excited to welcome our first residents here at our newest veterans home in Sallisaw,” said Admiral Jay Bynum, executive director for the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs (ODVA). “This state-of-the-art facility expands our ability to serve Oklahoma’s veterans and strengthens our presence in the eastern region of the state. In keeping with ODVA’s mission to provide service and support to those who served, the Sallisaw home reflects Oklahoma’s ongoing commitment to delivering high-quality, fulltime nursing care to veterans who need it.”

And the first veterans were eager to move into their new home. Originally expected to begin arriving about noon on June 5, the first three residents hit the door several hours ahead of the assigned time.

“The residents have been excited about it. That’s the reason they got here a little early,” said Daron Hoggatt, ODVA public information officer. “And I don’t blame them.”

As part of the center’s planned journey to gearing up for maximum occupancy, 20 veterans — most displaced when the Talihina Veterans Home closed in October 2023, forcing them to relocate to other veterans homes across the state, but who have priority for the Sallisaw home — will eventually reside at the new facility on U.S. 59 about a mile south of I-40.

Bynum explained on May 19 during a VIP tour that the first 20 veterans will be cared for to demonstrate the staff’s ability, which will probably be “a couple of months.” After that, more residents will be welcomed, with a goal of having about 100 at the center by the end of the year.

“We have the appetite,” Bynum said last month, “it’s just making sure we have that managed growth to sustain the organization.”

And when the center is given the go-ahead to accept residents beyond the initial 20, “it will not be a matter of finding residents,” Bynum said. “I’ve got a hundred-plus applications already, folks who have already said they want to live here.”

And Rob Arrington, director of veterans homes for ODVA, is eager to welcome the new residents.

“Our mission is to make sure every veteran receives the support they need. The opening of the Sallisaw Veterans Home is a direct result of strong local support and collaboration. We are grateful to Mayor Ernie Martens, the Sallisaw City Council, the Cherokee Nation, Carl Albert State College and the residents of the Sallisaw community for their partnership and commitment. Together, we are fulfilling our responsibility to support Oklahoma’s veterans and meet their longterm care needs,” Arrington says.

Making sure the ODVA has enough personnel to meet those needs is an ongoing recruitment process, and the Sallisaw Veterans Center still has job openings it needs to fill as it ramps up to full capacity. Visit Oklahoma. gov/veterans/jobs/human- resources.html

No place like home

Among the first residents to call the Sallisaw Veterans Center home is O.B. Brewer, who was transferred to the Sulphur Veterans Home when the Talihina facility closed, and has been anxiously awaiting his return to eastern Oklahoma.

“I’m glad to come home,” said Brewer, 93, who prefers to be called O.B., and who served from 1952-55 with the Navy’s Seabees, known colloquially as a “Dirt Sailor.”

O.B.’s home is in rural Talihina, where his wife, Dolphia, lives. For her, O.B.’s return to eastern Oklahoma wasn’t a day too soon.

When asked if she is excited to have her husband closer, Dolphia exclaimed, “Oh, my goodness. It’s quite a trip from Talihina to Sulphur.”

Although 2½ hours from his wife and their Latimer County home, O.B. says the Murray County facility, which overlooks the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, “is one of the nicest center’s in the state,” but he’s willing to give the Sallisaw center the opportunity to win his heart.

“It’s a nice building,” he said of the Sallisaw Veterans Center, “but that don’t make the place. The people make the place. It will take me a while to get used to them, to recognize them.”

While O.B. was eager to be among the first residents at the new facility, those who cared for him in Sulphur were slow to accept his move.

Talk with O.B. for just a short while and you’ll understand why he’s one of a kind.

“Everybody knew me at Sulphur,” he said, recalling his time in south-central Oklahoma. “If you can’t have fun in life — good, clean fun — what kind of life is it? I had half the center crying when I left this morning. They were good to me.”

O.B. is not timid about sharing his observations about those who are not as passionate as he is about America.

“I’m one of those old hard-headed country boys,” he says. “This is my country. If you don’t like it, we’ll put you on a leaky barge at high tide and hope the tide doesn’t bring you back in. That’s just the way I feel about it.

“I watch a lot of Fox News. But I can’t watch them other channels. I can’t handle that, they’re too far out for me,” he shares unsolicited.

A conversation with O.B. tends to meander, touching on whatever might trigger a memory.

“When I was 10 years old, I rode a Model A Ford in a rumble seat pulling an old trailer. It made the Grapes of Wrath look like the Hollywood hillbillies, Jed and them,” he says, painting a vivid, if not difficult picture of his family traveling Route 66 in 1942 to Bakersfield, Calif., and back.

But cars during O.B.’s formative years were not always as dependable, especially for a 1,500mile journey across five states and under some pretty harsh conditions. He said his father “stopped and overhauled that thing three or four times” during their trip, which he admits was the norm.

Raised during the Great Depression and the bleak times of the Dust Bowl, followed closely by the domestic hardships of World War II, O.B. quickly learned what it took to survive.

“When you were raised in the mountains, if you didn’t raise it or kill it, you didn’t eat,” he says, displaying his unique brand of free association.

Then he asks, almost rhetorically, “They’ve got a nice facility here, don’t they?”

“This place is awesome,” Dolphia responds.

But for someone who grew up during some of the most challenging times of the past century, O.B. isn’t one to take things at face value.

“I still don’t think they built this for us old veterans. I think they built it as a party house,” he quips. “It’s nice, though. It’s a nice place.”

Among the first to eat a meal at the new Sallisaw Veterans Center, O.B. Brewer enjoyed a fried Spam sandwich, and was catered to by Tammie Shroll, who is the food services manager for the Lawton Veterans Center, but was helping the Sallisaw staff launch its services.