WALLA WALLA -- The man responsible for the nation's veterans is now promising to help our local vets.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Dr. James Peake toured the Walla Walla medical center Tuesday.

It was Peake's first official visit to any VA hospitals since he was sworn in exactly two months ago to the day.

At his confirmation hearing in Washington D.C., Senator Patty Murray invited Peake to visit the local VA center in Walla Walla.

Tuesday, Peake made good on those promises: to visit vets and to help them.

At the tour, he announced plans to build a brand new residential rehabilitation facility focused on mental health.

"We have soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines who are in harms way everyday now," Peake said.

We are nation at war.

And when soldiers and sailors, airmen and marines are in harms way on this man's watch, it means the VA is not running business as usual anymore.

Peake wears a pin to relay that message.

"It's tough business," he said. "And what we want to do is make sure we don't have business as usual mentality, so we are changing the environment of of our younger men and women so that it appeals to them."

Secretary Peake is a decorated Vietnam War vet.

But he fears the health care challenges he saw are changing for the men and women coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan today.

"We need to make sure that we keep learning about it because I'm not sure that that fresh PTSD is exactly the same as dealing with people from my generation," he said.

"The veterans coming back from Iraq and the Middle East situation are over-burdened with the number of tours that they've encountered," local veteran Toby Armijo said. "Yes, they are definitely going to need benefits."

Peake and local lawmakers, Senator Patty Murray and Representative Cathy Mcmorris-Rodgers, are set on combating the health care troubles troops face when they get home.

Peake reported that more than 20 percent of all vets enrolled in the VA suffer from mental health like PTSD.

The plan is to build a state-of-the art residential rehabilitation facility at the Walla Walla VA.

"Take better care of PTSD but for that to actually get down to the soldiers on the ground," Senator Murray said.

Reps said the space will cover different areas of mental health care: including homeless and employment services, substance abuse treatment and psychosocial support.

The new facility will hold nearly 40 beds.

"I think it's quite a big issue, the fact that are getting national exposure with our cause with the veterans and things like that," Armijo said.

"it's a great thing cause we can pretty well county on by-passing a whole lot of red tape because we can go right to the source," Vietnam Veterans of America member Stephen Prince said.

The project is estimated to cost nearly $7 million.

The building is still in the planning phases.

Peake will continue his trip to other VA medical centers in the region for the next few days.