Veterans — Grant-Valkaria, Florida

About 720 civilian veterans live in Grant-Valkaria, 16.3 percent of the town's 4,419 civilian adults, according to the Census Bureau's five-year American Community Survey figures for 2020-2024 (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town).

Statewide the rate is less than half as high: 7.4 percent of Florida adults, 1,327,071 people, are civilian veterans (Census table S2101, Florida). Brevard County counts 65,035, or 12.6 percent (Census table S2101, Brevard County). Grant-Valkaria runs above even that county figure.

Grant-Valkaria is small, so its veteran count is a survey estimate with a wide band around it. Survey error on the 720 is plus or minus 180, and on the 16.3 percent share plus or minus 4.1 points (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town). The true Grant-Valkaria count is therefore somewhere between about 540 and 900 (720 minus and plus 180). The Brevard County margin, by comparison, is 1,980 on 65,035, a far tighter estimate.

The same table puts nonveterans at 3,699 of the town's civilian adults, so roughly one Grant-Valkaria adult in six has served. The figures cover the incorporated Town of Grant-Valkaria only; veterans in neighboring Palm Bay are counted in that city's own column.

The Vietnam War era dominates: 444 Grant-Valkaria veterans, or 61.7 percent, served in that period, roughly 1.8 times the Brevard County share of 34.6 percent (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town; Census table S2101, Brevard County).

The first Gulf War period, August 1990 to August 2001, accounts for 121 Grant-Valkaria veterans, 16.8 percent. The post-September 2001 period is the smallest of the modern groups in town: 40 veterans, 5.6 percent, while about one Brevard County veteran in four (26.1 percent) served after 2001 (Census table S2101, Brevard County). That gap is the clearest sign of how few younger veterans live in Grant-Valkaria.

The table also lists 49 Korean War veterans and 49 World War II veterans in Grant-Valkaria. Both are small estimates with large margins (the World War II figure carries a margin of 74), so they show only that a few of the oldest veterans remain. The five service periods add to 703 (40 plus 121 plus 444 plus 49 plus 49), short of the 720 total, because table S2101 reports only these five named periods (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town).

Most Grant-Valkaria veterans are past 65: 264 are 65 to 74 (36.7 percent) and 333 are 75 or older (46.3 percent), so 597, or 83.0 percent, are at least 65 (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town).

The ACS estimates no Grant-Valkaria veterans between 18 and 34, 37 between 35 and 54, and 86 between 55 and 64. Brevard County veterans are spread more evenly: 25.5 percent are 65 to 74 and 25.9 percent are 75 or older (Census table S2101, Brevard County). In Florida the 75 and older group is 29.9 percent (Census table S2101, Florida), well below the Grant-Valkaria share.

Women are a small minority. The Grant-Valkaria table counts 40 women veterans, 5.6 percent of the total, roughly half the Brevard County rate of 12.1 percent (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town). The Census Bureau notes that women were less than 3 percent of all veterans at the 1980 census and about 8 percent today (Census Bureau, About Veterans), so Grant-Valkaria sits below the national share, in line with its older, Vietnam-heavy veteran population.

Grant-Valkaria veterans have a median income of $58,646, about $15,400 more than the $43,259 median for the town's nonveterans, in 2024 inflation-adjusted dollars (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town).

The veteran median carries a margin of error of $14,064, so it overlaps the Brevard County veteran median of $57,948 (Census table S2101, Brevard County) and the Florida figure of $52,753 (Census table S2101, Florida). The gap between Grant-Valkaria veterans and nonveterans works out to $15,387 ($58,646 minus $43,259); table S2101 does not say how much of either median comes from pensions or wages.

Schooling is high. Among Grant-Valkaria veterans 25 and older, 42.1 percent hold a bachelor's degree or higher, five points above the town's nonveterans at 37.1 percent and above the county's veterans at 37.5 percent (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town).

Poverty is rare: 36 Grant-Valkaria veterans, 5.0 percent, live below the poverty level, below both the town's nonveterans (7.5 percent) and the county's veterans (6.2 percent). Disability is common. The ACS counts 297 Grant-Valkaria veterans, 41.3 percent, with any disability, about twice the 21.8 percent rate among the town's nonveterans and above the Brevard County veteran rate of 30.7 percent (Census table S2101, Brevard County).

Valkaria Airport began as a World War II Navy airfield: the U.S. Navy built it as Outlying Field Valkaria, an auxiliary field to Naval Air Station Melbourne, now Melbourne International Airport (Town of Grant-Valkaria, Valkaria Airport).

The Town of Grant-Valkaria history of the field records that OLF Valkaria closed in late 1945 and did not reopen for flight operations until 1959. Through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the site served as a Missile Trajectory Measurement (MISTRAM) station for the U.S. Air Force and NASA, supporting launches at Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center (Valkaria Airport page).

In 1959 the Department of Defense and the General Services Administration conveyed the part of the Valkaria site not used for MISTRAM to the Brevard County government for a public airport. Valkaria Airport (FAA identifier X59) sits on Valkaria Road about 1.7 miles west of U.S. 1 (Valkaria Airport page). The town's own history adds that W.L. Graddik, whose ranch house was in Valkaria, prospered during World War II as his cattle went to feed U.S. troops (Town of Grant-Valkaria history).

Brevard County Veteran Services helps Grant-Valkaria residents file VA benefit claims, and one of its three offices is in Palm Bay City Hall at 120 Malabar Road, in the neighboring City of Palm Bay (Brevard County Veteran Services).

Each of the three county offices, Palm Bay, Viera and Merritt Island, lists hours of 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, and the one Veteran Services phone number the page lists, 321-633-2012, appears with the Viera office (Brevard County Veteran Services). Its staff help a veteran or family member make sure a claim carries the required supporting evidence.

VA Orlando Health Care operates the Viera VA Clinic, an outpatient clinic at 2900 Veterans Way in Viera (VA, Viera VA Clinic). Burials for eligible Grant-Valkaria veterans can take place at Cape Canaveral National Cemetery, 5525 U.S. Highway 1 in Mims, a 318-acre VA national cemetery reached from I-95 Exit 231 (VA National Cemetery Administration).

A Grant-Valkaria veteran in these tables is a civilian adult with past active-duty military service; anyone whose only service was in the Guard or Reserves is left out (Census Bureau, About Veterans).

That rule dates to 1980, when the Census Bureau reworded its question to cover active-duty service alone. The ten-year census stopped asking about veteran status with the 2010 count (Census Bureau, About Veterans), which is why every Grant-Valkaria veteran figure on this page comes from the American Community Survey rather than the 2010 or 2020 counts.

Table S2101 also tracks work: 69.9 percent of Grant-Valkaria veterans aged 18 to 64 are in the labor force, but the margin on that figure is 27.2 points, far too wide to set against the Brevard County rate of 72.4 percent (Census table S2101, Brevard County). All Grant-Valkaria numbers here are ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates from table S2101, the same release used for the Brevard County and Florida columns (Census table S2101, Grant-Valkaria town).