Underdahl takes command at Veterans Home

Montana native and 20-year Army veteran Joren Underdahl, 37, is exactly what he wants to be — the new superintendent of the Montana Veterans Home.

Notified Nov. 20 that he would get the job, Underdahl took command of the 105-bed facility 10 days later.

He remains the acting director of nursing at the veterans home, the position he held for three years. He's preparing the mandatory paperwork to recruit his replacement.

Married to Nancy, also a Montana native, Underdahl has two children: Hunter, 8, and Abbey, 6. Both attend Ruder Elementary. Nancy is pregnant with their third child, a boy.

Underdahl came to Montana's only state-run veterans nursing facility in June 2006, from Colonial Manor in Whitefish.

Before that, Underdahl was deployed at Landstahl Regional Medical Facility in Germany, just across the autobahn from Ramstein Air Force Base, first stop for many wounded soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan.

Underdahl grew up on a dryland wheat farm east of Conrad. He graduated from Shelby High School, and at age 17, joined the Army. He turned 18 in basic training at Fort Knox Army base in Kentucky. Later he attended Montana State University, graduating from MSU's Havre campus in 1996 with a degree in nursing.

Underdahl is a third-generation Army veteran.

His late grandfather, Irwin, fought in North Africa and in Germany with the 99th Infantry Division in World War II. His father Kirby joined the Army near the end of the Vietnam conflict, and while not having been sent overseas, he spent the next 30 years flying OH-58 Kiowa helicopters for the Army and the MT Army National Guard before retiring from the military.

Underdahl served in two deployments — the one in Germany and another in Florida, where he was a case manager at a regional Community-Based Warrior Transition Unit.

"A lot of wounded still have issues after they leave the hospital, and the Army tries to get them back to their family while receiving needed care, instead of having to remain at a military hospital away from home," Underdahl said. "The case manager lines up their care, and ensures all needed medical appointments are set."

It's that sort of attention to detail he wants to provide at Montana Veterans Home, Underdahl said.

"I want veterans to receive the absolute highest quality care, and that the facility staff has everything it needs to do the job," he said. "I'll make sure information flows up to the Legislature and provide recommendations for what is needed."

He will soon begin planning next year for the state's biennial budget.

What the budget doesn't provide, more than 200 volunteers supply.

"We have huge community support," he said.

Construction of a new dining hall for the home's West Wing, or 40-bed unit, will be completed in late spring or early summer.

"The dining hall is enclosed, the siding up and the roofing is on," Underdahl said. "Next is the plumbing and electrical."

Workers are also installing a groundwater heating and cooling system. Water from a well at one end of the home pumps water through underground tunnels to a discharge well at the other end. Used in combination with a heat pump, the system distributes warm water in winter and serves as a heat sink in summer.

The system will be cheaper and more efficient in meeting the heating/cooling needs of the facility, he said. Work will be completed "in the next few months," he added.

Meanwhile, he's getting help in preparing for a possible move next year into the four-bedroom, two-bathroom superintendent's home on campus.

And he says he's here to stay.

"I don't see myself working anywhere else," he said.