Swirling debates about health care coverage in the U.S. are still continuing even after the Affordable Health Care Act was passed. But one thing the U.S. military sees as not debatable is the great need for free medical service in Selma, and that is why they are returning Aug. 7.

In May, the Military Community Assistance Mission served more than 15,000 in the Black Belt for dental, vision and other medical needs. The service is free of costs, it does not matter if the patient is insured or not.

“We just had such a high demand for the services that they offered, the physical screenings, the vision screenings and the demo check-ups,” said Derrell Alexander, assistant for City of Selma Planning and Development about why the mission is returning.

From Aug. 7-13 citizens can receive free outpatient medical, dental, vision and counseling services at 19 Washington Street, across from Washington Street Supermarket. The dental and vision care will be administered at 2 Lawrence Street, at the Riverfront venue. Services will go on from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.

“We are expecting to see those people that we didn’t see at the last mission,” Alexander said. “Hopefully the people will just come out because it is available to everyone at no cost and it doesn’t matter if people have health care coverage. It’s just a free program.”

Out of the three locations the mission came to in May, he said, the military felt that Selma had the greatest need and he said there were some touching moments where the military was able to make a difference.

Alexander said one man walked all the way to the vision station and when he got there they were glad he came.

“They immediately had to get him to the eye doctor because he was almost blind in both eyes,” Alexander said. “He walked and it’s just amazing that he had enough fight to know where he was going, yet at the same time his eye sight was threatened in both eyes.”