TOGUS – Their war wounds range from rashes and sleeplessness to back pain and missing limbs.

In all, more than 175 Mainers – veterans of the war in Iraq – have sought help here at the Department of Veterans Affairs center in Togus.

But there are even more Maine vets of the ongoing war who need help, say leaders of the sprawling hospital and VA complex near Augusta.

“They are out there,” said Dale Demers, director of the Veterans Benefits Administration office. “No doubt about it.”

The trouble is finding them and persuading them to accept help, he said.

The worst injuries from Iraq get immediate attention, eventually coming stateside to places such as Walter Reed Army Medical Center and Bethesda Naval Hospital, both in the Washington area.

All other veterans receive a VA briefing shortly after their return to the United States, typically at one of the large, out-of-state installations such as the Army base in Fort Drum, N.Y.

Soldiers who say they have problems are encouraged to check in with the VA in their home state. Many don’t.

The swirl of bureaucracy confuses some.

“They know how to take care of a tank or a plane,” said Ronald Brodeur, a Vietnam veteran who works for the Disabled American Veterans office at Togus. “But they don’t know how to take care of something like this. It’s not what they’ve trained for.”

Briefings may be quick and complicated. For many, their minds are on reunions with their families, Brodeur said.

They have faith that things will be all right if they can just get home. The ones who have a simple physical injury tend to appear at Togus. Some of the common injuries include bites from sand fleas, fungi and backaches. Some complain of persistent coughs. Others have more serious ailments, wounds from accidents and shrapnel. At least two are amputees.

People with emotional injuries, the wounds caused by months of stress in a war zone, often try to get by without help.

“I think it’s a macho thing,” said Demers. “They don’t want to complain.”

One of the common questions asked of every veteran of Iraq is, “How are you sleeping?”

“There’s a lot of them that are keeping it inside,” said Deborah Maillet, one of the people available to help Maine’s veterans of Iraq.

With all of them, she tries to sit down for an interview. When possible, the spouse comes along. Often they see things the veteran cannot.

Maillet has heard their stories of life back home.

One told her of swerving on a country road to avoid a bit a garbage, worried for a moment that it was a homemade bomb. Others have talked of reaching for a gun when jolted by a loud noise.

Maillet is part of a team at Togus specifically created for the vets from Iraq. The group is trying to reach more of them.

Like local Department of Labor officials, who brief returning military personnel on their employment rights, these people want to meet Maine’s newest vets.

They want to explain the details of their newly earned health care and related benefits.

“We’re ready,” said Togus spokesman Jim Doherty. “You tell us where and when, day or night, weekday or weekend. We’ll be there.”