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State Senator Lewis Vaughn has been working on this idea for nearly a year, noting “there is a huge interest among veterans. At one time, the upstate had more veterans per capita than any other area of the country. They are forced to drive to Columbia or Asheville for service, and there have been times they wait all day without getting assistance.”
Other community leaders, including Carm Hudson, are taking up the cause for a VA Hospital after Allen Bennett is vacated next year when the new Greer Memorial Hospital opens.
“Everything is already in place. This facility is saying ‘come and use me’ with open arms”, said Hudson.
A veteran of World War II where she served as a U.S. Army nurse, Hudson is seeking public support for the idea. “We need people to write our U.S. Senators, Jim DeMint and Lindsey Graham, to urge them to work with the Veterans Administration to make this a reality”, Hudson said.
Hudson, who founded the Greer Heritage Museum, has contacted VA officials in Columbia, and Philip R. Butler, Director of the S.C. Office of Veterans Affairs. “He thinks it is a wonderful idea”.
John Mansure, interim president of the Greer Hospital campus, said converting the facility into a VA Hospital “is a good, logical use of the Allen Bennett facility. I think the hospital system would be supportive of anything that will be good for citizens of Greer and the upstate.”
Mansure “suspects that this will be a federal decision, more than anything else, although the hospital board would ultimately have to approve.” The new Greer Memorial is on track to open in June, 2008.
Allen Bennett underwent a $6 million expansion several years ago, and Mansure said “the interior has recently been painted on the inside and is in very good shape.”
Hudson said “it has everything a VA hospital could desire, from diagnostic element to an emergency room.”
According to the VA, there are 35,063 veterans residing in Greenville County and 23,285 in Spartanburg County. “Many of them will need hospital care, and driving 100 miles to Columbia of 70 miles to Asheville is too far”, Hudson declares. “Think of the gasoline and time that would be saved by having an upstate VA Hospital.”
Hudson is asking citizens to write to Sen. Jim DeMint at 340 Russell St., Washington, D.C. 20510, and Sen. Lindsey Graham at 290 Russell St., Washington, D.C. 20510.
Hudson would like to see it be named “Allen Bennett Veterans Hospital. After all, he was serving in the U.S. Navy as a surgeon during World War II when his ship went down”, she said.
“This is plowing new ground for me”, Sen. Vaughn said. “But hopefully, we can get the Veterans Administration to agree that the need exists and take the next step by investing in the project. I believe the hospital board would be agreeable.”
There are no plans for the Roger Huntington Nursing Center facility that was recently vacated when residents moved into the new Cottages at Brushy. Mansure said a fire sprinkler system had been installed in the building several years ago, “and it is in pretty good condition. Also, the kitchen for the hospital is located in the basement of that building.”
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