Delaware now has a Department of Veterans Affairs. Here's what it means for Sussex veterans.

Delaware created a cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs when Gov. Matt Meyer signed House Bill 1 on Aug. 13, 2025. Retired Brig. Gen. Karen Berry was sworn in as the state's first Secretary of Veterans Affairs on Oct. 1, 2025, at the Delaware Veterans Home in Milford, according to the state.

The department serves Delaware's more than 70,000 veterans, with benefits help, housing, health care coordination and mental health support. For now it sits within the Department of State for budget and administration, and state law requires it to be fully independent of that department by July 1, 2030, following legislative approval of a plan.

Where to start

• Benefits, jobs, housing, legal help: the Office of Veterans Services and its Delaware Joining Forces network, 802 Silver Lake Blvd., Suite 100, Dover. 302-739-2792 · [email protected] · vets.delaware.gov/djf
• Veterans in the court system: Delaware's Veterans Treatment Court has run since 2011 and pairs veterans with mentors, including a Sussex mentor coordinator. Veterans with honorable and other-than-honorable discharges can be eligible. Office of Veterans Services: 302-739-2792.

Tell us about your veteran

Our Veterans Day special edition comes out Tuesday, and we want it full of Sussex County veterans. Tell us about your veteran, or your town's veterans: a parent, grandparent, neighbor, coach or friend.

Send us:

• Their name, branch and when they served
• Their town in Sussex County
• A few sentences about them, in your words
• A photo, if you have one and they're OK with us running it

Send it with our Tell us form by Monday, Nov. 9, at 5 p.m., or email it to [email protected] with "My veteran" in the subject line. It's free, and every veteran we can confirm gets a place in the edition.