Anticipating an influx vets from Iraq and Afghanistan, Maryland will open a third veterans health clinic in Anne Arundel County within 18 months, officials said this week.

Wilbert B. Forbes Sr., deputy state secretary of veterans affairs, said the center at Fort George G. Meade will be a community-based outpatient clinic similar in size to the one in Glen Burnie.

The Glen Burnie VA Outpatient Clinic offers primary care, mental health treatment and various specialty services to approximately 80 veterans every day. Since 2001, it has offered help to 415 veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"We like to keep...