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Photo by Bob Pennell Two generations of VA Domiciliary workers, Alyce Williams and her son, Gary Williams, will be among those celebrating the White City veterans facility's 50th anniversary. Veterans celebrate today as the Dom turns 50 By PAUL FATTIG WHITE CITY -- Gary Williams feels right at home when he goes to work at the Department of Veterans Affairs Domiciliary. "It is home," said the chief technologist in the facility's diagnostic medical radiology section. "It seems like I've never ever known anything but this place. "Yep, this was even my playground for a long time," he added. Indeed, working -- and living -- at the Domiciliary is part of the Williams family legacy: His mother, Alyce Williams, began working at the facility when it opened on Feb. 20, 1949, retiring in 1978. Her son, 55, has worked there since 1980. So today has special significance for the Williams family. It's the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Veterans Affairs Domiciliary. The event is being held now to coincide with the annual Dom Days activities. The Williams family even lived at what is fondly known as the "Dom" for a half dozen years in the early 1950s, paying about $45 a month rent. "Those veterans were a good bunch of guys -- they weren't a down bunch," Alyce Williams recalled, later adding, "We felt good to help veterans after the war." Helping veterans remains the focus of the Domiciliary. Celebration activities Dom Days parade of floats and marching bands through the streets of the Domiciliary, beginning at 10 a.m. Medford residents Alyce Williams and Annabelle Zahnow, who worked at the Dom when it opened and who spent their careers there, will be featured at the parade. Celebration and dedication, 1:30 p.m. at the Camp White Plaza near the Domiciliary canteen. The public is invited to attend. "Our primary mission is to help veterans get back to work, to get their dignity," said Andries, noting that goal remains unchanged as the Domiciliary prepares for the next century. What is changing is how the Dom staff achieves that goal, he said. "It has always been my philosophy that, to survive, the VA can't be that place behind the fence somewhere," Andries said. "It has to be part of the community, a resource for the community." Community projects like Eagle Point High School's alternative school are based at the Domiciliary, he said. Construction on the Army base that was once known as Camp White began on Dec. 12, 1941, five days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. When it was completed, the military camp had 1,300 buildings and covered 77 square miles. It housed some 30,000 soldiers during the war. There are nearly 900 patients at the Dom but the staff of about 400 also serves about 5,000 outpatients. "Originally this was an `old soldier's' home," said Dr. Michael Kelly, Dom chief of staff and a history buff who served as a paratrooper in the Army. "Certainly it still has that concept for people who have served their country and need a place for a respite and to regroup," he said. But now, the focus is rehabilitation over residential care, he said. The increased emphasis on rehabilitation is evident. Only 12 years ago one volunteer staffed the Dom's employment services department. There are now nine employment counselors working with veterans, Kelly said. While noting there is no guarantee when it comes to federal funding, Kelly added there is no question of the need for the work done at the Domiciliary. "In 50 years in the future, if homelessness and substance abuse is no longer a problem in society, this place won't be here," Kelly said. "But as long as they are an issue, we will continue to exist. That's what we're in business for." "We aren't going to run out of business," Andries agreed. "There will be more integration with the private sector, but it will be very much part of the Rogue Valley in 50 years." That suits folks like Alyce Williams just fine. "There are a lot of good memories here," she said during a recent visit. "I liked coming to work here." Although 50 years have passed since she started the retail store and coffee shop at the Dom in February, 1949, the Medford resident recalls those early years as though they were yesterday. So does her son who had worked at a Veterans Hospital in Southern California before transferring to the Dom. "The whole military base was basically still here when I was growing up," he said. "When I was a kid, we used to go play in the bunkers over in the Sam's Valley area where they are still finding ammunition. It was a real experience growing up here." Fellow Medford resident Annabelle Zahnow, who worked at the Domiciliary for 35 years, also recalls with fondness her days at the Dom. "It was a nice place to work," Zahnow said. "Of course, there was nothing there when I arrived. Just a few people. They didn't have electricity in all the buildings." That was in November 1948. Zahnow had arrived with the facility's first director, Paul Hatton, from the VA hospital at Fort Harrison, Mont. "Some of the German signs were still up for the prisoner of war camp that had been there," she said. "And, of course, it was just Camp White back then. White City didn't exist yet." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA