ODVA Director's Veterans Day 2026 Message: Honoring Service, Building A Legacy (Photo) - 11/03/26

By Dr. Nakeia Council Daniels, Director, Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs
 

Today, Americans honor all who have worn our nation’s uniform.

Our military history lives in veterans, their families and those serving today.

Today, service members around the world carry that story forward, along with the families who stand beside them. They include Oregon’s future veterans.

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I, and now honors all Americans who served in war and peace.

Veterans served in different times and places, but all promised to protect our country and its Constitution.

As our nation turns 250, we honor the people whose service helped carry us here—and what they taught us.

For me, those lessons are personal. Both my grandfathers served during World War II, when the military was segregated. My late grandfather, Bishop James Lot Smith, served honorably in the Army at a time when Black Americans were asked to defend freedoms they did not fully have at home.

He did not talk much about his time in the military. Instead, he showed me what service meant by the way he lived.

He and my grandmother cared for their family, church and community. They fed people, helped neighbors and opened their home to those in need.

They taught me that service does not end when the uniform comes off.

That lesson inspired me to join the Army and still guides me as Director of the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs. I see the same spirit in veterans who volunteer, speak up for others and lend a hand.

I see it in my own family, too. One of my sons serves in the Army Reserve, and one of my sisters served in the Army for 30 years and continues to serve today.

As a veteran, a mother and a member of a military family, I understand both the duty of serving and the sacrifice of loving someone who serves.

That is why I often ask myself and my team: Are we caring for veterans as faithfully as they served our country?

We have not always done that. Some veterans came home to silence, hostility or discrimination. Many struggled to get the care and help they had earned.

We cannot change that past, but we can make this promise to every veteran: No matter when or how you served, you belong.

Whether you served decades ago or recently came home, your service matters.

Veterans deserve more than our thanks. For more than 80 years, the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs has helped them find the benefits and services they earned.

But reaching every veteran takes all of us — agencies, communities, neighbors and families — listening, reaching out and helping.

Veterans Day is a time to say thank you. But honoring veterans must go beyond a ceremony.

We must welcome veterans home, stand with their families, help them find the benefits they earned and support them as they build their lives after service.

My grandfather taught me that service continues after the uniform comes off. We build our legacy by helping others.

May Oregon remember those who served before us, stand with those serving now and welcome every future veteran home with dignity and care.

Our country is stronger because of those who serve, the families who support them and the communities they come home to.

To our veterans and military families: Thank you. And to those serving today: May you come home safely.

God bless our veterans, military families, Oregon and the United States of America.

Dr. Nakeia Council Daniels is a proud veteran of the United States Army and the Director of the Oregon Department of Veterans' Affairs, ensuring the availability and access of vital veteran services and programs for more than 260,000 veterans and their families across the state.