Veterans Home in Fresno unveils memorial honoring those who lived at the facility

It took more than a decade and some $250 million to get Fresno’s Veterans Home built and up and running.

Set on a 28-acre campus in west Fresno, the facility opened in 2013 with the express purpose of providing long-term, assisted-living and skilled-nursing care for California’s veterans and their spouses.

It has taken care of hundreds of veterans in the last days of their lives.

Those residents were honored Monday, as the home unveiled a memorial at its main entrance. Inscribed on the walls of several granite slabs are the names of each veteran who passed while living at the facility, along with their date of birth and death and their military branch.

To date, there are 385 names are on the five walls. The memorial was supposed to be unveiled last year to celebrate the home’s 10-year anniversary but was put on hold because of funding.

Monday’s unveiling was attended by the families of veterans being honored.

“The walls are filled with stories,” said Julie Cusator, a public information officer with CalVet.

For instance, Gordon Caldis, who served as a PT boat captain during World War II and later became a lawyer and state’s attorney in North Dakota where he lived following his military service. Caldis shared his story with the Hometown Heroes radio show in 2014. He was one of the first residents of the Veterans Home and was living there when he died in 2016 at the age of 96.

“All of us visited often,” his son Bill Caldis said during Monday’s unveiling.

“He was so happy here.”

Much of that was because of the staff, he said.

“Every day they would shake his hand: ‘Thank you for your service.’”

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