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Above: The Wilmington Health Care
Center, the Veterans Affairs clinic
on the grounds of Wilmington
International Airport, opened in
2013. Far left: The 100,000-square-foot-
facility includes a spacious
waiting area. Left: Volunteer
Carolyn Lyle, a veteran herself,
greets patients with a smile. Below:
Milissa Sibley, a telehealth clinical
technician, and Harriet Browning,
chief nurse, perform a primary care
exam with a remote provider.
by an official grand opening the following month
— Wilmington-area veterans using VA healthcare
services had to travel for most treatment. There
was a small, 10,000-square-foot clinic on Medical
Center Drive, but it only offered primary care and
some mental health services.
“We had a waiting room that was prob-ably
as big as that waiting room that’s right
outside of my office, and they were packed in
there like sardines,” Trotta says. “There was
no parking in front of that building. Now if
you’re a veteran in southeast North Carolina,
you get supported by this. What’s going on
over here in the past few years is just incred-ible.
We went from just primary care and
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mental health to this.”