FOSH Mission & Vision
Since November 2011, Friends of the Soldiers Home (FOSH) provides comprehensive support and companionship to the veterans living at the Armed Forces Retirement Home in Washington DC. We are proudly and constantly evolving to meet their needs.
FOSH works to make a joyful connection between retired veterans and community members who give back to them. A place to have fun, enjoy solitude, and build friendships with neighbors.
It all started with a “Jingo” volunteer night, and FOSH went on to partner with the AFRH to conduct more than 300 volunteer events from 2011-2018, and we continue to come up with new and more monthly events.
FOSH holds annual community celebrations with the Home, including July 4th Celebration & Fireworks and the Fall Festival.
Each December, FOSH and the AFRH residents gather together for the annual holiday tree lighting. Thousands of people from the community attended these events to better connect the residents and historic campus with the surrounding nation’s capital.
History of the Armed Forces Retirement Home
The Washington, DC campus of the Armed Forces Retirement Home is America’s oldest enlisted veterans’ retirement home.
It is the national promise we keep for those who served - that they will always have a place to live. Four of the original buildings still stand and are listed as national historic landmarks. Two of the buildings, Quarters 1 and Lincoln’s Cottage, served as the summer White House for U.S. Presidents Chester Arthur, Rutherford B. Hayes, James Buchanan, and most notably, Abraham Lincoln.
By 1851, General Winfield Scott was a hero in the Mexican-American War. He was paid reparations in lieu of ransacking Mexico City. With this money Scott paid his troops and gave the rest to Congress — petitioning it to open a home for old and infirm soldiers.
A rustic country cottage owned by the prominent Riggs family was purchased as the site for the new home. This cottage sat high atop a breezy hill overlooking several hundred acres of farmland in rural Washington. The Old Soldiers’ Home began with just one resident. Before long, more soldiers moved in and they quickly outgrew that cottage. So a larger dormitory was built.
President Abraham Lincoln loved visiting the Solders’ Home, as did presidents before him. After it expanded, he asked to use the cottage for a summer home to escape the humidity and political pressures of D.C. All told, Lincoln spent one quarter of his presidency in the cottage including the months when he penned the Emancipation Proclamation.
Soldiers were expected to work to earn their keep. The Soldiers’ Home had a 300-acre dairy farm so residents could cultivate food and remain self-sufficient.
In the 20th century, the Home evolved with the times as the focus shifted away from work toward leisure. As the military evolved, the Soldiers’ Home would go on to admit airmen and women.
And, the cow pastures became a nine-hole golf course and resident gardens.
Today that original cottage is splendidly restored as President Lincoln’s Cottage, a National Landmark. The Scott building was renamed the Sherman Building, and it serves as offices for the AFRH agency staff. The new Scott Building, which opened in 2013, is a model of modern retirement living. Today, residents actively contribute military memorabilia and original artwork to its hallways.
Since the Home’s beginning, operational funding came from the soldiers (and later, airmen) themselves.
A permanent trust fund was established nearly 150 years ago, and was fed by monthly, active duty payroll deductions of 25 cents, when the average pay of a soldier was $7 a month. Fines and forfeitures from the armed forces and the monthly withholding have provided the principal support for the Home throughout its history.
In 1991, Congress incorporated the U.S. Naval Home in Gulfport, Mississippi, and U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home into an independent establishment in the Executive Branch of the Federal government known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH).
Since 2001, these two retirement homes have been known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home - Gulfport, and the Armed Forces Retirement Home - Washington, DC, respectively.
Who is Eligible to Retire at the AFRH?
Enlisted military veterans from each service branch can live at AFRH.
Those who served as members of the Armed Forces, at least one-half of whose service was not commissioned service other than as a warrant officer or limited-duty officer, are eligible to become residents of the Retirement Home.
Active-Duty Career Retired: Veterans who retired with 20 or more years of active-duty service in a regular component of the Armed Forces.
Eligible for Retired Pay: Veterans, who served in a regular or reserve component of the Armed Forces, who are now eligible to receive retired pay and benefits. Retired Guard/Reserves with over 20 years of creditable service (combined inactive and active-duty). Veterans who qualified for an early retirement such as TERA (Temporary Early Retirement Authority). Veterans who were given a medical or disability retirement with pay and full benefits.
Service-Connected Disability: Veterans with a service-connected disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
War Theater: Veterans who served in a war theater or received hostile fire pay and now suffer from injuries, disease, or disability.
WWII Female Veteran: Veterans who served in a women’s component before June 12, 1948 who are determined to be eligible due to compelling personal circumstances.
Beneficiary Spouse: The spouse of a retired veteran may apply to live with the Retiree if he/she is enrolled as a beneficiary in DEERS (Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System) and was married to his/her sponsor prior to the veteran's retirement from the Armed Forces.
To receive an informational brochure about the Home, please contact the AFRH Marketing Office:
AFRH, Public Affairs Office
3700 North Capitol Street NW, Box #584
Washington, DC 20011-8400
1-800-422-9988
