Veterans embrace mobile center

As part of an outreach program, the Department of Veterans Affairs has taken its services on the road.

The Mobile Vet Center has been traveling throughout the north country for the past two months to reach out to veterans of all wars and get them into the benefits system. The retrofitted Winnebago, stationed at the Watertown Vet Center, is the first of its kind in New York.

"We want to get up in the more remote and rural areas where the vets don't have the same services as we do here in Watertown," said Michael J. Walling, the readjustment counselor technician and driver of the RV. "The response has been great."

At the beginning of June, Mr. Walling and Ralph K. Marcellus, the clinical social worker and readjustment counselor assigned to the center, went to Star Lake. For two days, the pair spoke to veterans who served in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In the process, 16 veterans signed up to receive VA benefits for the first time in 30 or more years.

"Many of them are just appreciative that the VA is trying to reach out in a nontraditional way," Mr. Walling said, "because a lot of them felt left behind and now we are out there."

Mr. Walling and Mr. Marcellus received similar reactions at a Vietnam War veterans gathering in Boonville.

The mobile center has a satellite dish and is equipped with communication equipment that allows direct access to enroll in state and federal veterans benefits programs. Mr. Walling and Mr. Marcellus enter a veteran's information into the system and then help to access mental health, educational and other benefits.

The mobile unit "carries on it the same capabilities that we have at this fixed site," Mr. Marcellus said, comparing the RV to the Watertown Vet Center. "We have a counselor on board to talk to them and get them the services they need."

The pair will travel to New Hampshire in July for a week of training to learn all the intricacies of the vehicle, such as programming the communication software and maintaining the vehicle. After that, the mobile center will appear at several events in the region. It will be at the Canadian-American Festival on July 18 and 19 in Sackets Harbor and at the Boonville Woodsmen's Field Days from Aug. 21 to 23.

Mr. Walling and Mr. Marcellus said the most important part of the outreach program is getting into the Adirondacks, where there are pockets of veterans in small towns who might not be able to travel to a veterans center.

"In Star Lake, we got about 45 veterans out to talk to us," Mr. Marcellus said. "For a first-time event, with the low veteran population in the area, it was great to see that many come out."