Veterans across Windsor-Essex say it’s like winning a battle, only this time with the government.

The new veterans affairs office will open Friday morning inside 1 Riverside Drive West in downtown Windsor.

Andrea Grimes, an advocate for local veterans, says it’s great thay they will have a local office again.

“It is mobility accessible, there's a ramp, there’s even an electric access door” says Grimes.

Bernie Kelly, a veteran of the Cuban missile crisis, is also glad to have an office in Windsor.

“The idea that it’s come back to Windsor is what we were fighting for ever since they shut it down” says Kelly.

It was in 2014 when the Harper Conservative government shuttered Windsor's V-A office. It meant vets had to either go online, use the telephone or travel to London for help.

That decision was reversed by the Trudeau government last August, as the Liberals kept their election promise.

Mike Lepine was one of the vocal veterans who fought to have the office return to Windsor.

“This is maybe going to bring them back to where they were before this happened” says Lepine.

But both Lepine and Kelly admit they want to see what local services will be offered in Windsor.

The veterans affairs ministry says the new site will employ 17 people who will help about 2,800 veterans and their families in Windsor-Essex.