24-05-2025
SF ranked 4th in nation for veterans to live
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — According to a study by Veterans United Home Loans, Sioux Falls and Rapid City rank among the Top 10 Metro areas for veterans to live.
Aaron Pollard served in the Army for five years. Now he's the deputy secretary for the SD Department of Veterans Affairs. He says that the Sioux Falls metro area is a special place for veterans.
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'Even though it's a larger community, it still has a smaller kind of tight-knit community feel to it,' Deputy Secretary for SD Department of Veterans Affairs, Aaron Pollard, said.
In town, you can find a few different resources for people who have served.
'The Military Alliance year to date has brought in almost 50,000 guests. A lot of those, most of those, I should say, our veterans or active duty, duty military come in for their meetings. There's over 90 different veteran organizations around Sioux Falls,' Executive Director SD Military Heritage Alliance, Brian Phelps said.
'There's the DAV, there's the American Legion, there's the VFW. They're just a very large footprint in the Sioux Falls area,' Secretary for SD Department of Veterans Affairs, Jeremiah Schneider, said.
But that's not the only reason Sioux Falls is a special area.
'Our people are very veteran-centric. We tend to support the military. We support the mission. We support the United States. Sioux Falls is just a larger picture of the entire state of South Dakota,' Schneider said.
With Memorial Day on Monday, you may think that it's the perfect time to thank the men and women who have served in your city.
'I would ask people to shift from thanking a veteran this weekend to remembering those who were killed overseas fighting for our freedoms. While it's always appropriate to thank a veteran this weekend, I think it's more appropriate to remember those who went before us,' Pollard said.
'It's not necessarily a celebratory time. It is a somber time of remembrance to understand the foundation, the price that was paid to allow us to have the opportunity to spend time together in a setting such as Memorial Day,' Schneider said.
Out of the over 500 markets evaluated, Sioux Falls was ranked 4th and Rapid City was ranked 9th on the list.
The Military Heritage Alliance is hosting a Memorial Day Program Monday morning that starts at 10 a.m.
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