Veterans who receive community care for medical treatment have been required in the past to seek and receive new referrals every 90 to 180 days. Just getting that referral or authorization can cause delays in treatment. Now, with changes at the VA, those referrals won’t be as frequent.
Starting now, in 30 different categories of medical care, referrals and new authorizations will only be required once a year.
Community care can literally be a lifesaver for veterans who live too far from a VA medical facility, whose closest facility doesn’t provide the medical care that’s required or if the VA’s wait times are not acceptable.
Here are a few of the 30 medical categories that are now eligible for the longer authorization: cardiology, oncology, gastroenterology, pain management and pulmonary.
If you’ve been getting community medical care and are subject to the need for frequent reauthorizations, contact the Community Care office at your closest VA medical center to ask how the new rule impacts the schedule you’ll be on going forward. Ask whether the new “year” began when your current authorization period did, or whether a new year begins right now. Get the answer in writing, if you can. Take the steps you need to, to guarantee that your authorization is indeed extended so you don’t discover at the last minute that there’s been a problem and that your file was overlooked.
If you’d like to take advantage of community care, you need to be enrolled in VA health care or be eligible for it.
If you’re getting VA care, tell your VA physician that you’d like to get community care. If they think it’s appropriate, they will start a referral.
Once you find a civilian community care provider that you like, be sure to verify that they’re part of the VA’s network before you get any treatment from them, otherwise VA won’t pay for it.
To learn more about community care or to find a provider in your area, go online to www.va.gov/communitycare. •
By Freddy Groves
(c) 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.

The Bethany Improvement Foundation is raising funds to help build and complete the Bethany Veterans Plaza.

The Bethany Improvement Foundation is raising funds to help build and complete the Bethany Veterans Plaza.
This initiative is entirely community-funded, community-designed, and community-driven. It reflects a shared commitment to honoring those who served and strengthening the bonds within their city.
Southern Nazarene University donated the northwest side of Donald Street and NW 39th Expressway (Route 66) for the placement of the plaza.
The Veteran’s Plaza was designed by local sculptor, Scott Stearman, to honor all members of the Armed Services.
“The thing that motivated me about the Veterans Plaza was being a member of this community in that this is where I have my business, this is where I have my home, it’s where I went to college,” Stearman said. “The idea of the Veterans Plaza really started when (former) Mayor KP Westmoreland called me and asked me about creating something for the city of Bethany. But as more of us came together and started dreaming about what it could look like, it really became more than just a Bethany place. This became (original name) Route 66 Oklahoma Veterans Monument. It will be a place that will invite people to visit, a place to honor, service, and sacrifice, and patriotism.”
Stearman said the purpose of this plaza is to invite you to step into the stories of those that have served.
“The stories of those who served are going to be presented,” he said. “Of course, there will be a big central sculpture that will represent different eras and different genders and different ethnic groups that have been represented in our military service branches.”
He continued, “One of the aspects that I’m really excited about incorporating into this is there will be a place for you to read excerpts from letters that were taken. Words that were taken from the battlefield, words that were sent back home to families and spouses, to children. The text will be captured in a little bronze plaque, and you’ll read a letter from someone. Letters from World War I, letters from World War II, Vietnam, letters from Desert Storm. It’s going to be positioned in a circle as it goes around the central sculpture.”
Stearman said the Veterans Plaza will be a place to appreciate and treasure what service and sacrifice means.
“We will have seen their words, and we will have an understanding of what that is all about,” he said. “I’ve talked about this place to be a tribute to veterans and to the families and friends of veterans who sacrificed as well. It’s not really a memorial. This is a veteran’s plaza that will be a tribute.”
Stearman said there will be a memorial aspect to the plaza.
“Set off to the side, a little bit behind the main plaza with the big center sculpture and the wall and the letters and the bronze plaques and all the words will be an area that is a memorial for the fallen from Oklahoma who have died in the global war on terrorism,” he said.
He continued “We don’t think this exists anywhere in the state of Oklahoma. This will be the first place in the state of Oklahoma where all the names of the fallen in the war on terror will be listed on one wall. These are Oklahomans who have died in service since 9/11. They’ll be etched on a black granite wall. It’ll be very much like the Vietnam Wall where folks will be able to do a rubbing, they’ll be able to put a piece of paper up there and rub it and get an impression of what that name is on the wall.”
Stearman said standing in front of that wall will be a sculpture.
“It is a life-size sculpture of a little girl, five years old, literally 39 inches tall, and she’s standing in front of that wall of names and she’s going to be holding a folded flag. That’s all we’re going to know,” he said. “When we walk up to this sacred place, we’ll see this little girl looking at a wall of names holding a folded flag, and we will complete the story. The truth is, she represents us. She represents our community. She represents families and friends who’ve sent loved ones into harm’s way, and now she stands in this silent tribute looking at a wall of names.”
He added, “We’ll fill in the blanks on the story, but she will present a beautiful truth that the citizens of Oklahoma have a great debt and have experienced a great loss, because someone they loved, their name is on that wall. So that’s the memorial aspect of it.”
Stearman said the Veterans Plaza will include three sculptures.
“Three sculptures will be against the sky as you drive by. A Vietnam frontline surgical trauma nurse, a World War II/Korean War veteran, and standing in the center will be a modern-day desert warrior, and the two from previous eras and previous wars will have their hand on his shoulder,” he said. “It will be a previous generation supporting the active-duty soldier today. There’s a continuation of the call to arms that a nation has extended to its citizens or call to arms to go to battle. This is a place to honor those who have answered the call.”
Lawrence A. Ross, committee member of the Bethany Improvement Foundation, said he remains hopeful the first phase of the plaza can be approved by the end of the year by the Bethany City Council.
“I’m still hopeful that by the end of the year, the city council will have said yes, and I can begin looking for contractors and hopefully these angel donors will come out of the woods who I’m told are just waiting for full city approval for our location,” he said.
Donations are being solicited and should be sent to Priscilla Cude, Treasurer, Bethany Improvement Foundation, P.O. Box 218, Bethany, OK 73008. Payable to Bethany Improvement Foundation, which is a 501-c-3 charitable contribution. • By Van Mitchell, Staff Writer

The Department of Veterans Affairs will realign an additional $800 million this fiscal year as part of the Veterans Health Administration’s Non-Recurring Maintenance program, which makes infrastructure improvements to health care facilities to ensure safe and effective patient care.
The extra funding means more resources to repair and update aging VA facilities and technology.
The money will be spent on a variety of planned and supplemental improvement projects at various VA health care facilities across the nation, including the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, where the following improvements will occur:
• Abate Asbestos Phase 1 • Convert Surgery Air Handler to 80% return • Repair/Replace Condensate Return System (and pump)
“This is another step forward in our efforts to make VA work better for the Veterans, families, caregivers and survivors we are charged with serving,” said VA Secretary Doug Collins. “Improved facilities, equipment and infrastructure help improve care for Veterans, and these additional funds will enable VA to achieve that goal.”
The additional funds will come from savings gleaned from various VHA reform efforts. The additions will bring total NRM program spending for fiscal year 2025 to $2.8 billion – a nearly $500 million increase from fiscal year 2024.
The improvements announced today are the latest in a growing list of VA accomplishments during the second Trump Administration, including:
• The backlog of Veterans waiting for VA benefits is down more than 37% since Jan. 20, 2025.
• Since Jan. 20, VA has offered Veterans nearly 1 million appointments outside of normal operating hours. These early-morning, evening, and weekend appointments are giving Veterans more timely and convenient options for care.
• VA has opened 16 new health care clinics across the nation since Jan. 20, 2025.
• The President’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget request would add billions to VA’s budget.
• VA has made it easier and faster for VA-enrolled Veterans to access care from non-VA providers at the department’s expense.
• VA has implemented major reforms to make it easier for survivors to get benefits.
• VA is processing record numbers of disability claims, reaching 1 million claims processed for FY25 on Feb. 20 and reaching 2 million claims by June – both achievements were done in record time.

Pratt & Whitney Oklahoma City has been selected as the 2025 “Employer of Veterans” (Large Employer) by the American Legion Department of Oklahoma. The award recognizes the company’s strong support of veteran employees and its commitment to hiring and retaining those who have served in the military. Pratt & Whitney is an RTX business.
The award was presented on Saturday, July 12, during the American Legion Department of Oklahoma Convention in Shawnee, Oklahoma.
“Veterans bring unique skills, perspectives and leadership to our team,” said Greg Treacy, vice president, Pratt & Whitney Oklahoma City. “We’re proud to support them-not only during their time in uniform, but throughout their careers with us.”
Earlier this year, three Pratt & Whitney OKC leaders received the Secretary of Defense Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) Patriot Award during an employee event. That same nomination was shared with the American Legion by the ESGR State Chair, leading to the site’s selection for this statewide recognition.
The recognition reflects Pratt & Whitney OKC’s ongoing efforts to create a workplace where those who have served-and continue to serve-can thrive.

Memorial Service
Private Richard Gordon Wright, U.S. Marine Corps, born June 6, 1921, in Sparks, Oklahoma, was buried with military honors on July 18 at Dignity Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City. The ceremony began at 2 p.m., with cicadas loudly singing in the hot, still air.

Was that unusual?

Yes. Why?

Wright died on November 20, 1943, 81 years ago during WWII on Betio Island in the Gilbert Islands. His remains were not identified until February 8, 2024, by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and returned to Oklahoma City on July 11, 2025 – more than eight decades after his death.

As the service drew near, at least 75 people gathered in quiet respect. Members from American Legions (Posts 19, Woodward; 111, Edmond; 88, Norman; 142, Hominy, and others) and Veterans of Foreign Wars (Posts 4938, Edmond; 7977, Skiatook; 3077, Collinsville; 7180, Owasso, and others) came, as did those with no affiliation.

Although no one knew Wright personally, they came to witness the homecoming of a Marine who served his country with honor and gave his life for future generations.

Charli Ford, one of two historians and archivists of military history at the Hamilton VFW Auxiliary 4938 in Edmond (President Amanda Duncan is the other) gave the eulogy and thanked those who made Wright’s repatriation possible, including “the DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) for their efforts to recover, organize, analyze and identify the remains of the missing. And a special thank you to Mr. (Narsease) Tolen, Richard’s first cousin, for the donation of the DNA while he was still alive. His DNA was used to positively identify Richard.” Her voice carried pride and emotion while she recounted Wright’s early life. Ford ended with, “After today,” Ford said, “Richard’s journey comes to a close… May we never forget Richard’s sacrifice.”

Chaplain Ed Beesley, a Vietnam War veteran and member of Post 4938, described how well Betio Island was fortified by the Japanese against a large-scale amphibious assault by Americans. Beesley continued, “I want you to understand the Marines did it in three days…it was a fierce battle…which would come to be known in the Marine Corps as ‘Bloody Tarawa.’ What struck me, is…our own Oklahoma Marine was a part of the first wave on that beach landing on the 20th November, 1943…My understanding was that Richard’s landing craft was hit by mortar fire…” Wright’s 2nd Marine Regiment, about 150 men, was almost annihilated that day.

The service concluded with a prayer, seven-gun salute provided by VFW District 5, the playing of taps, and a moving flag folding ceremony followed by presenting it to Ed Zink of Weaubleau, Missouri, who represented the family. Zink is a second cousin to Wright. The crowd slowly, quietly slipped away.

Wright’s family
Zink spoke of his family’s connection to Wright. “My mother’s mother (Zink’s grandmother) was the sister to Richard’s mother. They were sisters…George Ann and Sharon are Richard’s nieces and they knew about him. Their brother was named after him. So, they knew he was missing, they just never expected him to come home.”

“I’m honored to be able to represent the family and to acknowledge his military career, as short as it was.” Zink, a Marine, understands sacrifice. He served two tours of duty in Vietnam and one in Thailand.
He praised the research Charlie Ford and VFW Post 4938 performed. “They’ve done a wonderful job. Charlie…has been unbelievable. She’s been on this case for several years. They went above and beyond.”

Identifying veteran remains
Amanda Duncan said, “We do a lot of work with MIAs, POWs. It is something our post and our auxiliary is very passionate about.”

She explained the meticulous process of identifying remains. “When something like this happens, first of all, they (DPAA) look at the service record and where they enlisted out of.” Other clues: where family lives(d) and where the deceased’s military unit was engaged in battle.

In Wright’s case, a relative was located in just a few days, though the full process – DNA testing, approvals, and transport – can take months. Ford described how she reached out to a family member through the Ancestry website after a relative built Wright’s family tree. “I noticed she had him on the tree… trying to see… what relation she was and if we could find somebody to give DNA.”

Private Wright is buried in the same cemetery as his father, Henry Wright, a World War I veteran, and grandfather and grandmother, William and Eva Wright.
There are 1,185 Oklahoma MIA/POW servicemen awaiting repatriation.
• story by Lt Col Richard Stephens, Jr., USAFR, Ret.

How do you tell the story of World War II – through airplanes, tanks, uniforms, and the voices of those who lived it? At the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, the answer is yes. Exhibitions with 300,000 artifacts and over 12,000 personal narratives fill three floors of six buildings across seven acres.
Told from the American perspective, the museum tells the tragic story of the deadliest war in human history. Give yourself four to six hours to experience it fully.
Don’t Miss These Galleries: D-Day, Europe, and the Pacific
You’ll walk through a timeline of battles, such as North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Normandy, surrounded by maps, videos, audio broadcasts, photographs, written and oral histories, weapons, and personal items. Both Allied and Axis artifacts are on display.
The galleries use simulated environments to make visitors feel like they are there. For example, in the Rising Sun exhibit, first, you’re on a ship with lifeboats and sleeping hammocks and later, you’re walking in a dark island jungle amid sand, palm trees and a simulated pill box. Add shouted commands, gunfire, sounds of airplanes – even a P-51 fighter hanging overhead – and you feel you’re in the fight.
One visitor, John Powell of Rochester, Illinois, said he liked “the level of immersion and audio-visual to support the artifacts and personal stories. It’s better than what I expected.”
Real People. Real Stories
The museum tells stories of the 16 million Americans who served. One heartbreaking moment is reading the telegram notifying the family of Private First Class James W. Oglesby that he was killed in action at Bougainville on March 25, 1944. Alongside it is a letter from his chaplain and a photo of Oglesby and his girlfriend – whom he secretly married just before departing.
Corporal Kenneth Kassels, who landed on D-Day, survived a gunshot wound to the head. His helmet, still bearing a bullet hole, is on display.
I met three members of the 150th Engineering Battalion, a Mississippi-based Army Guard unit visiting in uniform after field training and asked for their thoughts.
“You get the experience of what the soldiers went through at the time…” said Sergeant Major Micquel Miller. Captain Joel Baldwin said the WWII generation was “born into a time when the common man was needed to do extraordinary things.” And Lieutenant Colonel Seth Davidson said “leadership hadn’t changed much in 80 years, it (the museum) is helping us understand what past veterans went through and helps us as leaders today.”
Beyond the Battlefield
The Arsenal of Democracy exhibit explores America’s internal debate – isolationism vs. interventionism – from 1939 to 1941 before Pearl Harbor and how the nation mobilized its economy for war.
The Liberation Pavilion focuses on the aftermath: the Holocaust, the Monuments Men who searched for stolen art, war crime trials, and civil rights and other changes to inequality. The role of non-white men and women were also explored – 1.2 million African-Americans served; 350,000 women joined the military and 19 million worked; and Japanese-Americans were incarcerated.
In the Freedom Pavilion, enormous aircraft hang above you, including a B-17E Flying Fortress and a B-25J bomber, and vehicles of war are displayed.
I spoke with Chesley Hines, an 85-year-old Vietnam veteran and museum volunteer. “I grew up knowing about the war. I relate to these guys and girls (that served). It’s so important to the city (New Orleans)…I enjoy meeting people.
Other exhibits
The museum includes more than 15 smaller exhibits and interactive features: Higgins Landing Boat, Voices From the Front (interactive conversations with members of the WWII generation), U.S. Merchant Marines: We Deliver the Goods, U.S.S. Tang Submarine Experience – an interactive mission, Freedom Theater on the war’s global stakes and the 4D film “Beyond All Boundaries”, narrated by Tom Hanks (temporarily unavailable). Whew!
A take-away is learning that WWII killed about 76,598 million people and reshaped many nations and formed new ones. Through it all, one truth resonates: freedom is never free.
Plan Your Visit
The museum is wheelchair accessible, fully air-conditioned, and offers three types of guided tours for $20 each. Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Tickets: $26 for children (K-12), $33 for seniors, $26 for military (active, retired, or veteran). There are no audio phones.
There are two cafés inside and two more restaurants at the adjacent Higgins Hotel. Four gift shops offer everything from books and apparel to WWII-themed games.
In 2024, the museum estimated that 658 WWII veterans in Oklahoma were still alive. Their stories live on through this remarkable museum. • story by Lt Col Richard Stephens, Jr., USAFR, Ret.

Early Life & Tulsa Race Massacre

Olivia Hooker was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma in 1915.  When she was a child, she and her family moved fifty miles away to Tulsa…Hooker’s father owned a clothing store in the affluent Greenwood District, sometimes known as America’s “Black Wall Street.”

In 1921, when Hooker was six years old, white supremacist rhetoric boiled over into vicious violence.  Enraged by false rumors that a local Black man had assaulted a white woman, white mobs invaded the Greenwood neighborhood.  Arsonists torched homes, businesses, churches, and schools…At least dozens – likely hundreds – of Black Tulsans died. Nearly 10,000 were left homeless.

Hooker and her family were at home when intruders carrying torches entered their backyard.  In an interview with NPR, she remembered her mother hiding her and her siblings under the dining room table… “It was a horrifying thing for a little girl who’s only six years old,” she said, “trying to remember to keep quiet, so they wouldn’t know we were there.”  The men destroyed the family record player and butchered the piano with an ax.  The mob also burned her father’s store to the ground.

The Hooker family left the city soon after the massacre.  They moved to Topeka, Kansas and then to Ohio.  Hooker earned a BA at Ohio State University and began working as a teacher.  She told NPR that her parents urged her and her siblings to avoid “agonizing over the past” and instead “look forward and think how we could make things better.”

SPARS Service

During World War II, the US military began opening its ranks to women for the first time…When the Navy’s WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) program finally opened to Black enlistees in 1944, Hooker applied several times.  But the WAVES turned her down… Instead, Hooker decided to try the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve, better known as the SPARS. In a 2013 interview, she recalled that the SPARS recruiter was “just so welcoming, she wanted to be the first one to enroll an African American.”

On March 9, 1945, Hooker became the first Black SPAR on active duty.  Along with four other Black women, she completed boot camp at the Coast Guard’s training center in Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn.  She went on to further training as a yeoman, or administrative specialist…The head of the school wrote to every Coast Guard station commander—there were 11—to find an assignment for her.  Only one, in Boston, agreed to take a Black yeoman.

At her post in Boston, Hooker worked in the separation center, processing paperwork for those who were discharging from the service.  While she was there, the war ended…She left the SPARS having been promoted to yeoman 2nd class.

Asked about her SPARS service in 2013, Hooker reflected:

“I would like to see more of us realize that our country needs us, and I’d like to see more girls consider spending some time in the military, if they don’t have a job at all and they have ambition, and they don’t know what heights they might reach. It’s really nice to have people with different points of view and different kinds of upbringing. The world would really prosper from more of that.”

Psychologist

After leaving the SPARS, Hooker used her GI Bill benefits to go back to school.  She earned an MA from Teachers College at Columbia University and a PhD in psychology from the University of Rochester.

Hooker taught at Fordham University in New York City from 1963 until 1985.  She then worked at the Fred S. Keller School…She retired in 2002, at the age of 87.  Hooker co-founded a division of the American Psychological Association (APA) dedicated to intellectual and developmental disabilities.  The APA honored her with a Presidential Citation in 2011.

Later Life & Honors

Throughout her life, Hooker shared her memories of the Tulsa race massacre and advocated for justice for its victims.  No one was charged, and most victims received no compensation from their insurance companies. Hooker co-founded the Tulsa Race Massacre Commission in 1997 to unearth the buried evidence of the massacre. She also pressed for reparations for Black Tulsans. She joined a lawsuit against the state and testified before Congress in 2005 and 2007. In the 2020s, victims and their descendants continue to seek acknowledgement and financial compensation for the massacre.

In 2015, the Coast Guard recognized Hooker by renaming a training facility and a dining hall in her honor. Hooker died in 2018 at the age of 103.

By Ella Wagner, PhD, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Education, National Park Service.   Article used with the permission of the National Park Service, August 6, 2025.