The Providence VA Medical Center will hold a 60th-anniversary celebration on Thursday, from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., in the main hospital building’s 5th-floor auditorium which will include the 2009 VA Lincoln Bicentennial traveling exhibition, “Lincoln’s Legacy at VA.”

Retired Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice and Lincoln scholar Frank J. Williams will be the keynote speaker for this event which is open to the general public.

The Providence VA Medical Center is located in Providence, just north of Federal Hill, at a site that was known for the Davis stone cottage that sat atop the hill above Davis Park. The land was previously owned by Thomas Davis, whose active political career spanning the mid to late 1850s included service on the Providence School Committee, in the state Senate and House and as Rhode Island’s Congressional representative.

The federal government began construction of a new veterans’ hospital on the Davis site on Sept. 27, 1946, when there was a need for additional hospitals to treat the wounded World War II service personnel returning from Europe and the Pacific theater. Completed in 1948, the hospital was dedicated on Sept. 2, 1949. For more information about the history of the Providence VA Medical Center, call Tom Antonaccio in the Medical Center’s public affairs office at (401) 457-3369.

To help meet its 21st-century patient-care obligations, the Medical Center has recently begun several multi-million-dollar construction and renovation projects to enhance the quality of care and services for veteran patients. Contracts recently awarded include plans for a new operating room suite, a new psychiatric ward, a new research facility and a new fixed MRI imaging center. Construction on the inpatient psychiatric unit has begun and will last through December. The renovated unit will have 21 beds with semiprivate baths, enhanced safety features and increased therapy capacity. During construction, a temporary reduction in the current unit’s availability will be supplemented with as-needed use of other psychiatric facilities within the VA network and in the local community. Questions regarding the ward’s renovation or psychiatric patient services should be directed to Dr. Michael Goldstein at (401) 457-3057.

•Veterans of Foreign Wars and Auxiliary:

Gatchell Post 306 and Auxiliary units meet Monday at the post home, 171 Fountain St., Pawtucket, at 7 p.m.; Smithfield Memorial Post 2929 will meet Wednesday, at 7 p.m., at 47 Farnum Pike, Smithfield.

•Italian American War Veterans:

Post 1 will meet Tuesday at the Byfield School on High Street in Bristol, at 6 p.m.

•Warwick Veterans Council:

will meet Tuesday at VFW Post 183, 176 Washington St., Warwick, at 6:30 p.m.

•Fleet Reserve Association Quonset/Davisville Branch and Unit 42:

will meet Tuesday, at 7 p.m., at the Davisville Seabee Museum at 21 Iafrate Way.

•American Legion:

Post 12 will meet Tuesday at Saratoga Foundation Headquarters, 6854 Post Rd., North Kingstown, at 7:30 p.m.; Berard-Desjarlais Post 88, 111 Chapel St., Harrisville, will meet Wednesday, at 7 p.m.

•Disabled American Veterans:

Folcarelli Chapter 1 Post will meet Wednesday at VFW Post 2812, 1418 Plainfield St., Cranston, at 3:30 p.m.

•U.S. Army Special Forces Association:

Chapter 48 will meet Wednesday, for a 6 p.m. cookout at the Fogarty target shed; for more information phone Brad Preston at (401) 886-1860.

•Marine Corps League:

Bucci-Atwood Detachment will meet Wednesday at the Armed Forces Reserves Center, Fields Point, Providence, at 7 p.m.; the South County Detachment will meet Wednesday at VFW Post 916, 155 High St., Wakefield, at 7:30 p.m.

•R.I. Association of the United States Army:

Executive committee will meet Wednesday, at 7 p.m., at VFW Post 10011, 354 Fruit Hill Ave., North Providence.

•Vietnam Veterans of America:

Chapter 273 will meet Wednesday, at 7 p.m., at VFW Post 2812, 1418 Plainfield St., Cranston; James Ray Memorial Chapter 818 will meet Thursday at Lincoln’s senior center at 40 Chapel St., starting at 7 p.m.

•The Military Officers’ Association of America:

Narragansett Bay Chapter will have a casual luncheon meeting on Friday at Willows Resort on Route 1 in Charlestown, starting at 11:30 a.m.; reserve Monday by calling Bob Mason at (401) 294-4824.

•Seabee Veterans of America Island X-1:

Will meet at the Seabee Museum, 21 Iafrate Way, North Kingstown, on Saturday at 9 a.m.

•Veterans of the Battle of the Bulge:

Chapter 24 members will meet Saturday, at noon, at Barrington’s American Legion Post 8 hall on Legion Way.

•WAVES National:

Ocean State Unit 118 will meet at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Powers Building, One Capitol Hill, Smith Street, Providence.

•Destroyer Escort Sailors Association:

Will gather for a luncheon meeting on the Bay Queen on June 24. Boarding time is 10:15 a.m., at the Blount Marina on Water Street in Warren; call Roland at (508) 996-1566 for reservation inquiries this week.

Send veterans’ meeting and news items to George W. Reilly at VeteransColumn@verizon.net or write to The Veterans’ Journal Column at The Providence Journal, 75 Fountain St., Providence, R.I. 02902. Veterans’ meeting and feature items can be read and posted for free at http://projothebeat.com/.