The long-planned Daniel Kahikina Akaka State Veterans Home finally opened its doors Wednesday in Kapolei as the family of its namesake, the late U.S. senator from Hawaii, bestowed the facility with a traditional Hawaiian blessing.
The facility was developed and will be overseen by the state Office of Veterans Services. After two decades of state lawmakers trying to gather land and funds and plan the 120-bed facility, the state broke ground on the facility in 2021 on a 7-acre property.
Ron Han Jr., a retired Air Force colonel who served as OVS director, oversaw the project. Both colleagues in government and friends and family called it his “baby.” But he wouldn’t see it to completion — Han died in August 2023 at the age of 62.
It’s the second state veterans home to open in the islands. The first was the Yukio Okutsu State Veterans Home in Hilo in 2007, but the state has plans for another on Maui and hopes to expand further to care for aging isle veterans.
Current OVS Director John Almodin told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that “(Han) was the director essentially the whole time overseeing this project until his passing … This being the second (veterans home) really kind of launches the ability … to provide veteran care across the state (especially) once the Maui home is established as well.”
As dignitaries gave speeches at the opening, both the Akaka and Han families had prominent front-row seats to mark the occasion. Gov. Josh Green said “it will really, I hope, be an enduring testament to these two gentlemen that always inspired us, who taught us, who led us, who educated us, but basically championed us as leaders from Hawaii.”
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Han’s son, Ronald Han III, said “dad would share updates for each milestone, like when the site was chosen or when they broke ground. Now standing here and actually seeing this home, I am truly in awe.”
“This home is a beautiful tribute to our veterans and to think this is just the beginning,” he said. “With continued effort and dedication to this vision, we can ensure a bright future for our veterans, offering them the support and care they deserve on every island.”
The facility opens with six residents, with more expected to be admitted subsequently. Hawaii is home to an estimated 100,000 veterans on Oahu and 30,000 veterans on the neighbor islands.
Residents of the islands have served in American conflicts dating as far back as the War of 1812, with Prince Humehume of Kauai volunteering to fight for the American side of that conflict as he traveled the world before returning to the islands. Many from the islands have been awarded for valor on battlefields around the globe.
“These homes are vital to our veterans,” said Maj. Gen. Stephen Logan, who leads the Hawaii Department of Defense — which includes the OVS. “At this home here veterans, their spouses and Gold Star parents can all receive assistance, physical occupational therapy or speech therapy and different types of care, ranging from Alzheimer’s dementia, hospice, long-term respite and 24-hour skilled nursing care.”
Akaka, who died in 2018, served during World War II as an Army engineer and upon returning to Hawaii used his GI bill benefits to go to college and pursue a career in education before getting into politics.
“He never forgot the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform, because he was there, and he was one of them,” said his grandson David Mattson. “He remembered seeing the beginning and the end of the war in the Pacific, first with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and then later watching the departure of the Enola Gay from Tinian. All those decades later, while serving in Congress, he made it his priority to provide for our military and for their families, their ohana.”
Last year the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs also opened a clinic in Kapolei named for Akaka, which the late senator spent many of the last years of his life fighting for as part of an effort to provide support to veterans on the leeward side of Oahu and save them long trips to VA facilities at Army Tripler Medical Center.
All of Hawaii’s veterans are served by the VA’s Pacific Island Health Care System, which also serves veterans in American Samoa, Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas. The system, which has always had limited facilities and personnel, had been working to hire more people and build more facilities in recent years with a focus on reaching veterans in rural areas.
VAPIHCS already has experienced a small number of layoffs as a result of wide personnel and budget cuts being undertaken by the Trump administration. VA workers have told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser they are concerned about what much larger cuts — which the Trump administration says will take effect this summer with the layoff of 80,000 workers across the agency — might look like in the islands.
The VA played a role in getting the new veterans home established. The OVS, which besides the home helps veterans with paperwork to help them access VA benefits and services they’re entitled to, could play a bigger role in helping isle veterans depending on the scale of VA cuts and which jobs get cut in Hawaii.
“There are more veterans than we can serve, we have to be honest with ourselves,” Green said. “But we have to start in a place like this, where people can get the care that they might need when they’re elderly.”
“We know, the challenges are many for our veterans in service — the injuries that occur in the aftermath, the wounds that PTSD can bring, the era of traumatic brain injuries that have occurred in wars like Afghanistan and Iraq — all of which mean that we have a sacred obligation, and I mean sacred, to our nation’s heroes, because they are asked to give so much.”