VILLAS, N.J. (FORTUNE Small Business Magazine) - Urban Miyares returned from the Vietnam war in 1968 with nerve damage and diabetes. Blindness came later. When he couldn't find employment, it made him angry. So the New York City native founded a construction company -- the first of 23 businesses he launched, then sold or shuttered.

Around the first Gulf war, he founded a charity to help other veterans start businesses while wrestling with their demons. "They come home with the scars of war," says Miyares, "which can be obvious or hidden."

In April, Miyares -- now 58 and living in San Diego -- took the helm of a new community-based organization (CBO) created by the Veterans Corp. (www.veteranscorp.org), a largely government-funded nonprofit outfit that shares his desire to help former GIs become successful entrepreneurs.

CBO centers have opened in Boston, Flint, Mich., San Diego, and St. Louis. Each provides business counseling and access to capital, including a new pilot program in D.C., Florida, Maryland, and Virginia with Citibank for loans of up to $300,000.

Retired Army master sergeant Louis Celli, 43, runs the CBO in Boston and offers online business classes for troops in Iraq. "The reason I prefer working with veterans is that their pain threshold is much higher," Celli says. "And that is an indispensable quality for entrepreneurs."

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