Between 4,400 and 5,000 military veterans reside in Beaufort County, but in 2010 just 1,600 of these veterans signed up for medical care through the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center.

This statistic, provided by Jerry L. Cobb, Beaufort County’s veterans employment consultant, illustrates a lack of awareness of the services available to veterans in rural areas, Cobb said.

“It’s not widely advertised,” said Cobb, who works out of the Washington office of the N.C. Employment Security Commission, located on Third Street.

To better educate his target population, Cobb will come together with the VA and Karen Melton, Beaufort County’s veterans service officer, for a Beaufort County Veterans Benefits Fair.

The fair will run from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. June 30 at American Legion Post No. 15, 200 American Legion Road, Washington.

Participants include local businesses and American Legion posts plus the Disabled American Veterans and Durham VAMC Rural Health Initiative, reads a flier provided by Cobb.

Cobb’s job is basically to help veterans find employment or direct them to someone who can assist them with a disability claim, but one of his and Melton’s chief concerns is that many veterans don’t seem to know about the health care to which they’re entitled if they are honorably discharged.

A VA medical clinic in Greenville serves the area veteran population, Cobb pointed out.

“As long as you were honorably discharged you can use that facility,” he said.

The cost of this VA care is free for veterans who have a service-related disability and low-cost for other servicemen and women who have left the military on honorable terms, Cobb explained.

The Greenville clinic has medical doctors and a psychiatrist on staff, he said.

It isn’t just recently returning veterans Melton sees, but Vietnam- and World War II-era servicemen and others, too.

“My primary job is getting them signed up for the clinic over in Greenville, which is really important,” said Melton, who has an office in the former Tideland Mental Health building off Highland Drive in Washington.

“I still have World War II veterans that are being seen in Greenville at the clinic – never came in here until 60 years after the fact,” Melton related. “So we’ve got a wide range of veterans in this area.”

Younger returning veterans are generally more aware of the services within their reach because these days the military advises them of these services before they’re discharged, she said.

Still, Cobb and Melton see a yawning need to reach out to veterans in this community.

“It’s a lot busier than I think most people ever thought as far as the needs of our veterans for the health-care clinic,” Melton said.

For more information about the benefits fair, call Cobb at 252-946-2141.

For more information about veterans health services, call Melton at 252-946-8016.