Ogden » He wouldn't have liked all the attention.
But just the same, George Wahlen would have been overjoyed by the hundreds of people who gathered Thursday for the ceremonial opening of a new veterans nursing home, family members of the recently deceased Medal of Honor recipient said.
The World War II vet -- who disliked public attention but accepted as many opportunities as he could to champion veterans' causes -- would have seen Thursday's festivities as an opportunity.
"He would already be pushing people to build another one," Wahlen's widow Melba said as she greeted well-wishers in the lobby of the nursing home that bears her late husband's name.
Adding to a sister facility in Salt Lake City, the Ogden home will bring to 200 the number of beds available for veterans in two state-run homes. But that's not even half of what the state is rated for by the federal government and is many times less than advocates say is needed. As evidence, veterans officials say the waiting list for the new 120-bed home, which will begin taking residents in January, is already 150 names long.
It has been nearly a decade since the federal government approved the location -- a slice of land on the northern tip of Defense Depot Ogden. But even as construction costs rose, members of the Utah Senate hesitated to support funding for the $20 million building over concerns about how long it would take the federal government to repay the state for its share of the costs. And when the state Senate finally approved a deal that would front the cash last year, it came with a provision that the money for the Ogden home would have to be repaid before the state would consider building a new home.
Although the funding has been approved, Utah is on a waiting list to be reimbursed and it could be several years before the federal reimbursement check arrives.
But in the spirit of the man whose brush-stroked likeness hangs in the new home's lobby, veterans and their supporters say they're not content to wait. They want the state to begin building a similar facility in Washington County -- where more than 10,000 veterans reside -- as soon as possible.
State Department of Veterans Affairs Director Terry Schow said building the Ogden home required the support of thousands of people -- and millions of Utahns.
"My gosh, there have been so many people," he marveled. "How do you thank everybody?"
The answer came to Schow quickly.
"By moving forward," he said. "That's what George would want us to do."
blogs.sltrib.com/military
