NASHUA — U.S. Senators Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen appeared at the New Hampshire Veterans of Foreign Wars state convention Friday, vowing to bring a full service Veterans Affairs hospital to the Granite State and fight not just for the physically wounded, but the mentally wounded veterans as well.

“Thank you, all of you, for everything you’ve done for our country and everything you continue to do in serving our country,” Ayotte said to the crowd of VFW men and auxiliary ladies.

“Those wounds that our men and women who serve have, sometimes they’re physical wounds we can see, and sometimes they’re wounds that we can’t see.”

Ayotte said that along with Shaheen and Rep. Charlie Bass she wrote to Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to push for a VA facility in Coos County. “Vets in the North Country have a long way to go (for health care),” she said.

“We’ve got to fight every single day to get greater access for our vets.”

Ayotte slammed the sequestration of military funding, set to take effect on Jan. 2, saying it could lead to the reduction of tens of thousands of troops and $500 to $600 billion in military funding over the next 10 years.

“It keeps me up at night because we can’t let this happen,” she said. “This is too important. We are still at war.”

Ayotte stressed the excellent bipartisan relationship she shares with Shaheen on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Shaheen, who like Ayotte received two standing ovations, echoed her counterpart. “The strength of any organization really is its people. It’s probably true more so in terms of our military than any other organization in this country.”

Shaheen also cautioned against the sequestration plan, which resulted from the failure of a congressional “super committee” for deficit reduction and signifies an effort to reduce government spending by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. “I think there is unanimous agreement that that is not the way we should be dealing with the debt and deficit challenge that is facing this country.”

Present at the convention was Tech. Sgt. Elaine Hohmann of Pelham, who serves as Jr. Vice Commander of VFW Post 10722. Hohmann has served in the U.S. Air National Guard since 1992 and is on the verge of retirement. At that point, Hohmann said, she will spend more time working with vets.

“The veterans are going through a lot coming back, and we reach out to them,” she said. “We know (post traumatic stress disorder) is a major factor for many of them.”

Hohmann referenced a New Hampshire soldier who recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. “He just wasn’t right, so we reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, we’re here for you. Just give us a call and we’ll help you out.’”

“But he just wouldn’t talk,” Hohmann said, shaking her head. “He wouldn’t say what was happening with him, but you knew, because he wasn’t the same person as he was when he left.”

Hohmann said the group is making headway on the man’s case, but he didn’t feel normal being back in the U.S. — he wanted to return to Iraq.

“He was so used to his friends over there and such a sterile environment,” she said. “There’s so many there at the VA hospital that you run into.”

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Simon Rios may be reached at srios@newstote.com.