South Dakota's Veterans Commission toured three veterans' care facilities Friday in Rapid City.

The tour began with a stop at the new veterans' wing at Cornerstone Rescue Mission and continued with visits to the Vet Center in downtown Rapid City and the Veterans Affairs Clinic at Rapid City Regional Hospital.

The commission is appointed by the governor and meets four times a year at different locations to discuss the state's veteran care.

"My goal was to show our other commissioners from East River what Rapid has and what the West River has for veterans," commission chairman Michael Birnbaum said during a tour of the Vet Center.

Birnbaum, of Rapid City, said the group was impressed during a Friday morning tour of the new Cornerstone Rescue Mission Veterans Wing.

The wing was dedicated last November. The facility can hold about 60 homeless veterans, and there are about 47 staying there now.

Birnbaum said he asks veterans if they are being treated OK during his visits to different facilities. He said he received positive feedback at the Cornerstone wing, as he does at most of the facilities he visits in the Black Hills.

A veteran himself, Birnbaum said he is able to get a good look at the facilities when he visits.

"I use the VA myself, so I have a firsthand view of what's good and bad," he said.

Birnbaum and other members of the commission discussed veterans' affairs with Vet Center readjustment counseling therapist George Whitaker during the Vet Center tour.

Whitaker discussed some of the problems experienced by veterans coming back from wars and some of the counseling the Vet Center provides for those issues.

He said some veterans that return home have hard times adjusting and want to go back to war, and some have post traumatic stress disorder.

Whitaker said the Vet Center is usually the first contact for the serviceman returning home. Readjustment counselors at the center are there to take care of any problems, he said.

"The veteran, his family, his children - we're going to see all of them," Whitaker said.

Contact Ryan Woodard at 394-8412 or ryan.woodard@rapidcityjournal.com