By Jake Armstrong
Record Staff Writer
October 12, 2007 6:00 AM

TRACY - An unexpected donation of land and a four-story building in Sonoma County has ramped up a Tracy
woman's plans for a retreat center to segue soldiers from the battlefield to civilian life.

The building, in final phases of construction on a wooded hillside outside idyllic Guerneville, and 2 acres of
farmland will serve as a pilot location for Nadia McCaffrey's Veterans' Village, a self-sustaining counseling and
job-training center for armed forces members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

A World War II veteran, who wants to remain anonymous, made the donation late last month after hearing
McCaffrey speak in Petaluma two months ago about her vision for the Veterans' Village program.

"He is a veteran himself. He understands what they are going through when they come home," McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey's son, Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, a National Guard soldier, was killed by the Iraqi troops he was training in
2004.

A nonprofit organization McCaffrey founded and named for her son is heading up the project and expects it to be
serving as many as 16 veterans by the end of November.

Veterans will receive counseling to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and learn job skills while keeping
the center self-sufficient through farming or arts and crafts. A former nurse, McCaffrey believes the soldiers will
benefit from talking about their situation and working together.

McCaffrey, who strongly opposes the war, said she does not want the village to have a political lean or take a
stance on the conflicts overseas.

"Right now, we need to patch our wounds, and the soldiers need help," said McCaffrey, 62.

And that help can't come soon enough, she said.

A soldier who served in the National Guard with McCaffrey's son volunteered to redeploy to Iraq in July rather
than cope with the transition to civilian life, said McCaffrey, who has kept in touch with soldiers who served with
her son. The soldier, whom McCaffrey did not name, had taken to heavy drinking and risky behavior as he
attempted to settle back into civilian life, McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey continues to pursue plans for a $25 million main Veterans' Village campus in North Carolina, where
she has been working with local veterans groups, and she envisions satellite villages around the country to offer
aid to the hundreds of thousands of veterans returning from war.

Since 2002, 686,306 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have left active duty and are eligible for health
benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, according to the agency. One-third of those veterans -
229,015 - have been evaluated by Veterans Affairs, and slightly more than a third of them were diagnosed with
mental disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Contact reporter Jake Armstrong at (209) 239-3368 or jarmstrong@recordnet.com.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071012/A_NEWS/710120314
Search GSFSO
Land donation opens door for Veterans' Village plan