Veterans serve and protect the citizens of this nation every day and can experience many physical and mental hardships along the way.

The Birmingham Mobile Vet Center stopped at Durbin Farms in Clanton on Friday to offer an outlet for those veterans seeking guidance about problems.

“We’re a counseling service for combat veterans and their families,” Mobile Vet Center Readjustment Outreach Technician Marty Job said.

The services provided are not just for veterans but also their family members and anyone else that has been affected in some way or another.

According to Job, the Mobile Vet Center allows the opportunity to go out in communities where there is no Vet Center located and spread the word.

“The common questions I get asked are about benefits,” Job said. “I try to point those veterans to the right people in order to get those questions answered for them.”

Job takes the mobile vet center to various destinations about three times per week. His coverage area consists to the west and north of Opelika and encompasses 52 counties, four of which are in Mississippi.

There are 70 mobile vet centers scattered throughout the country including Hawaii and Guam.

Alabama has four physical Vet Centers located in Hoover, Huntsville, Montgomery and Mobile.

The Vet Center welcomes walk-ins and counselors have shown the willingness in the past to come in after hours and can make special accommodations to see people on their terms outside of the posted hours.

“We’re a lot more flexible then the hospitals can be,” Job said. “Our program is very specific to what we service, such as combat vets, military sexual trauma victims and traumatic brain injury.”

Job has been operating the Mobile Vet Center for four years and is retired from the air force after 26 years.

According to Job, veterans are more likely to open up and express their problems with someone who they can relate with. As a result, the majority of the Birmingham Vet Center staff consists of military veterans.

“We deal with people that are struggling through problems,” Job said. “Anonymity is a huge issue within the Vet Center. Our records are separate from the hospital’s and hospital personnel cannot look at our records.”

It does not matter how old or what conflict someone served in, the Vet Center offers a front to fight against whatever problems they are facing.

“People don’t like to be tagged as having a problem,” Job said. “We keep it simple and very relaxed.”

According to Job, the next scheduled stop for the mobile vet center in Clanton will take place on June 3.

“We’ve got a great deal with Durbin Farms,” Job said. “They said that we can come out and set up anytime we want.”