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In October and November 1962, the Jackson VA Center participated in one of the most unique community support activities that has ever involved the Veterans Administration. A barge carrying a

consignment of chlorine had accidentally sunk in the Mississippi River below Natchez, Mississippi. If the chlorine tanks broke during recovery operations, there would be great potential

danger to inhabitants of the area. Special precautions were taken to prevent a possible disaster. Local, state, and federal authorities decided that all patients in hospitals and nursing

homes, along with other aged or infirm persons in the Natchez area, should be moved to places of safety. They would remain at the points to which evacuated until the tanks of chlorine had

been removed from the river. It was determined that about 550 persons should be transferred to some safe area. Nearly 300 of these required public assistance for the move and for care while

away from the danger zone. The VA agreed to accept and care for 246 hospital and nursing home patients during the emergency, on a humanitarian basis, without regard for veteran status. VA

Hospitals at Jackson and Biloxi, Mississippi, and at Alexandria and Shreveport, Louisiana, were designated to support this operation. Just as the 1940s and 1950s had brought to the VA the

challenges of expanding operations during periods of active war, the 1960s and early 1970s posed new problems, brought by the longest wartime period in the history of the United States. The

VA Medical Center faced new challenges as the Vietnam War brought a new group of veterans with unique needs. The VA expanded its programs and services to address the physical and mental

health issues arising from the conflict. The nation’s Bicentennial Year is also a time of special note in the history of the Jackson VA Center. The first major plant expansion since

completion of the present building in 1961 is now in progress. To the east of the present Hospital a 120-bed Extended Care Building is under construction. Cost of this new facility is

$3,008,000. The expected completion date is 1977. Groundbreaking for the new Research and Education Building was held July 9, 1976. This addition, to be located north of the existing

building, will cost $6,700,000. Its completion will permit further expansion of Medical Research, which now employs approximately 20 persons and operates on an annual budget of about

$302,000.