For 31 years, veterans in need in need of long-term, nursing or rehab care could get those services at the simply named Virginia Veterans Care Center. Now, the facility’s name will honor Colonel Paris Davis and Captain Eugene “Red” McDaniel.
Both attended a renaming ceremony in Roanoke Tuesday.
Army Colonel Paris Davis is the most recent Virginian to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He was recognized for bravery during the Vietnam War. Davis was one of the first African American Green Beret officers. After retirement from the military, he started an African American community newspaper in Northern Virginia.
"This moment is not just about me," Davis told the audience gathered outside the facility. "It’s about the commitment we have shared to support our veterans."
Navy Captain Red McDaniel is also a Vietnam veteran. He spent six years in captivity after his plane was shot down in 1967.
"Had I known 57 years ago, when I ejected into the jungles of North Vietnam, that God was going to use my story in these ways, it would have been a much easier ride," McDaniel said.
McDaniel later wrote a book about his experiences, called Scars and Stripes: The True Story of One Man's Courage Facing Death as a POW in Vietnam.
During Tuesday's ceremony, Daniel Gade, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services, noted that he had read McDaniel's book when he was a 12-year-old. His voice cracking with emotion, Gade told McDaniel "in my own darkest hour, when I was maimed, and broken in war, I turned to your inspiration, Red." Gade lost a leg while serving in the Army in Iraq. "I was able to bear up under unspeakable pain because you’d done it before me. Thank you for saving me Red."
Governor Glenn Youngkin thanked the two men, and the other veterans in attendance. "The life experiences you have carried all the way through to here are now a source of inspiration to all of us. As Americans, as Virginians, we truly look up to you," Youngkin said.
The Davis & McDaniel Veterans Care Center is one of three state-run facilities. A fourth will open next year in Fauquier County.
