Craig VA clinic may get new name

Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet hailed the passage of their bill to rename the Department of Veterans Affairs telehealth clinic in Craig after Medal of Honor winner Army Major William Edward Adams. The bill, which Udall and Bennet introduced in February, passed the Senate by unanimous consent late last week and now goes to the President to sign into law.
Adams, who was raised in Craig, was killed in action in Vietnam in 1971. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic efforts to evacuate three wounded soldiers during an enemy attack. Tragically, the helicopter that Major Adams was flying was shot down during the rescue and all aboard were killed. In the 111th Congress, the entire Colorado delegation supported legislation introduced by former Congressman John Salazar to rename the Craig telehealth clinic for Adams, but it did not make it out of the Committee on Veterans Affairs.
“The telehealth clinic in Craig aims to help Colorado veterans who have given so much for our freedom, and it’s in tribute to Major Adams’s brave sacrifice that it will bear his name,” said Udall, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Veterans advocates and community members in northwestern Colorado have come out strongly for renaming this clinic after their hometown hero, and I was proud to put my full support behind the push to get it done.”
“Major Adams embodied the independent and selfless spirit of the of the community he called home and his heroism is an inspiration to all of us,” Bennet said. “Naming a facility that serves northwestern Colorado’s veterans after Major Adams is an honor to the clinic, the community and the state.”