Updated: 4:32 AM PST Dec 16, 2020 Less than three days after the first COVID-19 vaccine received government authorization, a World War II veteran in Massachusetts became the first Veterans Affairs patient in the country to get the shot.The VA Bedford Healthcare System s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived Monday morning and the facility began to administer doses within a few hours.Margaret Klessens, a 96-year-old resident of the Community Living Center in the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, received the shot Monday at 12:07 p.m., the VA Bedford Healthcare System announced in a statement.She said she was pleasantly surprised to be able to get the shot so soon. Hear more about Klessens experience in the video above.Thirteen minutes later, Andrew Miller, a housekeeper in the environmental management services became the first employee to get the jab.