Mobile vet center visits Decorah on Wednesday

Posted: Wed, Nov 7, 2018 11:55 AM

The mobile vet center is parked beside the courthouse

The Cedar Rapids Mobile Vet Center visited Decorah on Wednesday. The mission statement for the mobile vet center is to serve veterans and their families by providing a continuum of quality care that adds value for veterans, families, and communities. Care includes professional readjustment counseling, community education, outreach to special populations, the brokering of services with community agencies, and provides a key access link between veterans and other services within the U.S.

Troy Lewis is a readjustment counseling technician with the VA who travels in the mobile vet center. This is the first time the unit has parked by the Winneshiek County Courthouse. It usually comes to the Winneshiek County Fair every other year, offering resources to veterans.

Lewis is in West Union every Thursday. The mobile vet center provides referrals for benefits assistance, marital and family counseling, job counseling and placement, sexual trauma counseling and referral, and bereavement counseling.

Winneshiek County Commission of Veterans Affairs Administrator Faith Hlubek says this is the first time her office has had an outreach day. Their office works with the mobile unit to give veterans any help they may need.

Hlubek, along with administrative assistant Mary Moen, helps veterans to be aware of the benefits they may be eligible to receive including health care, disability compensation and pension, survivors and dependents benefits, home loans, and burial benefits to name a few.

Iowa veterans may choose to be buried in the VA cemetery located in Van Meter, Iowa, or in Preston, Minnesota. They do not need to be a Minnesota resident to choose Preston.

Decorah resident Dave Houdek talks with Troy Lewis in the mobile vet center

Mobile vet unit

L-R: Faith Hlubek and Mary Moen stand outside the veterans affairs office

Faith Hlubek in her office at the courthouse