Being deployed overseas twice in her 15 years with the Army National Guard, Sergeant First Class Kari Stetzer says it was difficult adjusting to civilian life each time she came back.

"For school, it was a little trickier getting back into that," Sgt. Stetzer said. "Just going back to classes every day.”

Stetzer says she recognizes the time it takes for vets to readjust and is now working as a readjustment counselor at the new La Crosse Vet Center on Copeland Avenue.

"Although we’re a VA agency, we’re allowed to see family members and extended family members and we’re also allowed to meet with them in the evenings and on weekends, too," said Vet Center Team Leader Joe Huth.

Huth says the employees are veterans who are there to help other vets with a variety of issues from sexual trauma counseling, to helping them find jobs in the community.

Another unique service the Vet Center offers is bereavement counseling.

“So if a Wisconsin family should lose a service member overseas, we are to go out into the home and provide counseling services for that family," Huth said.

While many vets in Northwestern Wisconsin have already reached out to the center, Huth says there’s many more who haven’t.

“There’s 100,000 veterans within 100 miles of this facility," Huth said. "That’s why it was established. And we invite them to come in now, see what our vet center is about.”

Sgt. Stetzer says, "It’s kinda nice to be able to talk with or kinda vent with someone about certain aspects that you’ve gone through with somebody such as a veteran, such as myself.”

For more information on the La Crosse Vet Center and the free services it offers, you can call the office at (608) 782-4403.