Military combat veterans returning to civilian life soon will have an easier time of reaching counseling and veterans services with the opening next year of a new vet center in Cobb County.

It will be Cobb's first.

Cobb was included in a list of 39 new veterans centers announced this month by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The new center will be Georgia's fifth. The closest to Cobb is in Atlanta. The newest in Lawrenceville opened last year. Others are in Macon and Savannah.

VA officials will be looking for space to lease for the facility, likely in a storefront setting, VA spokesman Phil Bodahn said. It is targeted to open by December 2009.

"We really don't know where it's going to go," Bodahn said. "That depends on what kind of commercial real estate is available."

The centers are typically staffed with four or five counselors. In Lawrenceville, for instance, team leader Curtis Lucas, a psychologist and Gulf War veteran, heads a staff of three social workers in the new facility.

Bodahn said the counselors help veterans readjust to civilian life. "Returning military personnel are suddenly citizens again, back with their families, trying to do normal civilian jobs. Sometimes, it's not easy," he said.

"Over there, [in combat zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan] they've been with a whole bunch of guys doing what they're told. Suddenly, they've got to think for themselves and take care of kids. There are counselors out there that make that work."

At vet centers, the counselors most likely are veterans such as himself, Lucas said. More than half saw combat.

The program began as peer counseling for returning military personnel before Congress federalized the program in 1979, he said.

Today, community-based vet centers "are a key component of VA's mental health program," Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake said in a statement. "I'm pleased we can expand access to bring services closer to even more veterans, including screening and counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder."

Other services include counseling on employment, family issues and education to combat veterans and family members, as well as bereavement counseling for families of service members killed on active duty and counseling for veterans who were sexually harassed on active duty.

Services are free to veterans who experienced combat during any war era.

Georgia congressmen welcomed the announcement.

"My district offices have been busy working on cases for veterans who need assistance dealing with the VA. The steady increase in veteran cases shows that more outreach is needed by the VA, and I am hopeful that this new facility will alleviate some of the case backlogs," U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) said in a statement.

"This is outstanding news. This new facility will help ensure that we deliver to our veterans the level of VA care they deserve," said U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga). Fellow Republican Sen. Saxby Chambliss called it "great news for our veterans."

U.S. Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) said the center "will be an invaluable asset to newly returning veterans in our community."