LANDSTUHL, Germany — Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson, along with the chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, toured Landstuhl Regional Medical Center on Tuesday informing wounded servicemembers of the VA support available to them.

The bedside visits came on the homestretch of a weekend trip to Iraq by Nicholson and members of the Idaho congressional delegation. The group met with units serving in Iraq, particularly the Idaho National Guard’s 116th Cavalry Brigade.

On Tuesday, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, Senate committee chairman; Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho; and Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, spoke with several servicemembers who were recovering from wounds received recently in Iraq.

Craig took the time to highlight a new benefit that will be available to wounded troops. For $1 a month, servicemembers would be eligible for between $25,000 and $100,000 in benefits depending on the severity of their injuries, Craig said.

“That will be law next week,” he said. “We’re very excited about that.”

Craig was persuaded to push forward with the benefit after three young veterans visited him three weeks ago. One of the veterans lost both legs, another was missing one leg and the third was blinded.

“The good news is that our health care delivery system and medicine today is allowing them to come home alive,” he said. “And that’s wonderful, obviously. In Vietnam, many of these would not have made it home. So now, as much as ever, it’s making sure that they are effectively rehabbed.”

One such servicemember who likely will undergo rehab is Army 1st Lt. Ryan Hollin. While escorting colonels north of Taji, Iraq, Hollin’s right leg was injured April 30 when a vehicle exploded after pulling off to the side of the road to make way for the convoy Hollin was traveling in.

After the fellow West Point graduates swapped a few memories about their alma mater, Nicholson assured Hollin that he would be taken care of in the future.

“You’ll be great,” Nicholson said. “I’ll see you at Walter Reed [Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.]”

While veterans who have suffered physical or mental injury as a result of their service are entitled to VA care for the rest of their lives, noninjured veterans also are eligible for VA benefits, Nicholson said.

Any veteran who leaves active duty and who has served in Afghanistan or Iraq can receive two years of full medical care by the VA.

“We are a learning that a lot of them don’t know that, but they are entitled to that,” Nicholson said. “It’s a statement on the part of the American people of our gratitude for their service to us in defending our freedom. It’s a very big and expensive operation, but it’s there for them. We only exist for one reason — that’s for our veterans.”