SPARKS — Army veteran Tim Kelly served in Vietnam for 10 days in 1962 as an ordnance specialist, searching for unexpended rounds from weapons and roadside bombs. Once he saw the “craziness” of the onset of the war, however, making military service a lifelong pursuit became out of the question.

“At the time we were attached to NORAD in Colorado Springs and they would send us all over the world,” he said. “I was there (in Vietnam) for 10 days and I say that laughingly ... because I thought this is some craziness and I wasn’t going to make it a career.”

After he left the Army in 1964, he spent 15 years hitchhiking across the country feeling “lost,” not unlike what today’s vets experience coming home to civilian life.

In response to that, Kelly teamed up with Phil Foster, a Navy veteran, to open the Northern Nevada Veterans Center on Greg Street a month ago. The co-founders held a grand opening celebration and barbecue on Memorial Day and were visited by Sen. Harry Reid for a community service they say is vital for Sparks and northern Nevada.

“We decided what’s really needed is a just a hangout place where guys can come and find out if they have benefits coming to them and bounce (ideas and experiences) off of other veterans so they don’t make the same mistakes,” such as avoid the pitfalls of trying to collect disability, Kelly said.

Foster said NNVC’s services will be the first of their type in the nation after having called more than 500 Veterans of Foreign Wars posts across the country to determine whether centers that offered the kind of services NNVC hopes to provide were available in other states.

As a drop-in/referral service, one of the principal tasks NNVC will help vets with is securing a job or training for a job in a field the vet would like to work. Though most return from their service with a particular skill, many need help trying to pursue their true passion or, in the current harsh economic climate, just finding any job they can get.

This week, Foster said, two men filled out interview questionnaires on which they indicated they wanted to find positions in warehouse manufacturing or in food as a cook.

“We’ll call up the industries and let them know we have someone from the military … or if they don’t have the job experience, we’ll get them training,” Foster said.

The drop-in/referral service, Kelly said, will be able to connect the ex-military member with resources for a variety of things, but another one of NNVC’s most important functions will be to provide social opportunities and counseling.

“We’re into fun and we think being a veteran can be pretty lonely,” Kelly said. “The way to fix that is what we call adventures – fishing trips or some bird hunting.”

The outings would be a chance to provide some relaxation particularly for younger vets returning from Iraq or Afghanistan who may be experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome, Foster said. He will also be able to refer them to local psychologist David Kaul if they’re in need of counseling services for mental or emotional impacts suffered as a result of their service.

“With Vietnam, people were ashamed if they had post-traumatic stress syndrome,” Foster said. “It was a drawback. But now the government has seen the light and it’s important to deal with it for troops.”

Foster was in the Navy from 1962 to 1988 and worked as an aircraft repair specialist. He helped build an auto hobby shop in Alameda, Calif. and he provided training.

“It’s very important for (vets) to have a future,” he said.

But NNVC’s activities will require funding and while it’s in the midst of obtaining non-profit status, monetary donations are Kelly’s and Foster’s lifeline. They have been collecting furniture, clothes and other household wares from members of the community and placing those items in their storage space on Greg Street. Most of those contributions are being sold in garage sales, which only net about $150 or $200, or they give away many of the clothes or basic necessities to vets in need. Help will be hard to find, Kelly said.

“We had Sen. Reid here and we discussed quite a bit of that and there’s not a whole lot he can do personally, but he wants to give us some help,” Kelly said. “We’re in the process of getting incorporated so we can get 501(c)3 status to apply for grants and living on our garage sale once a week and we’re not making it. … There’s nobody out here on Industrial.”

Kelly and Foster said they will do whatever they can to help whoever walks through their doors seven days a week.

“We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here,” Kelly said. “That is to say there are really good local programs. American Legion has one for homeless vets and that’s in case of a house fire or something like that. We want to give access to just about everything a person needs … and make people aware of what’s available in Reno, Sparks, Carson City, Dayton or Fernley (or elsewhere in northern Nevada).”

For more information, call 342-2322 or visit www.vets-nnv.org.