[Episcopal News Service — Northampton, Massachusetts] John Kelley wasn’t comfortable talking about Vietnam with a non-veteran in the room. He said so, directly, from the end of a large conference table, the emotion in his voice quieting everyone else. He’s tall, at least 6 feet, with long white hair and a white beard that brushes against his chest. A cloth mask patterned with American flags covered much of his face and beard, drawing attention to his eyes. Kelley, 75, is a husband and father. He’s also an Army veteran who served 15½ months in Vietnam. When he returned from the war to Northampton, Massachusetts, he eventually started his own trucking business, choosing to be alone most of the time — not for a year or a decade, but for 50 years, until he retired four years ago. As his schedule became less demanding, memories of the war came back to him more frequently; he could no longer avoid the past. “I’m an easygoing guy, but when it comes to Vietnam, it’s hard for me,” he told Episcopal News Service in March. For decades, he didn’t tell people he served in Vietnam, but he’s comfortable talking about it with other veterans. And from the time that he retired until the pandemic, he got together with several dozen of them every Wednesday at the local Building Bridges lunch. A community ministry of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts, Building Bridges hosts regular lunches for veterans in towns around the diocese. The pandemic has shifted meals from sit-down comfort food to grab-and-go bags; it has not impacted the ministry’s planned expansion into the neighboring Diocese of Massachusetts and possibly New Hampshire. With all veterans eligible for the vaccine and a tent at the ready, the first eastern Massachusetts site should launch in Swansea next month. In 2012, Western Massachusetts Bishop Douglas Fisher contacted the Rev. Christopher Carlisle about starting a housing ministry for female veterans. Fisher’s time as a U.S. Military Academy chaplain had connected him with veterans, and he knew that while men leaving the military could access transitional housing, females had limited or no access to the same transitional services. He asked Carlisle, who had founded Cathedral in the Night, a Northampton street church serving homeless people, to lead the effort. When that idea failed, Carlisle and Steve Connor, then a Veterans Affairs officer, decided on a ministry with a simple premise: offer a free lunch at the World War II Club to local veterans and an optional guest, no expectations, no strings attached. “For the first three months or so, we’d get one veteran, three veterans, two veterans, and it wasn’t looking terribly promising,” Carlisle said. Three months in, about 25 veterans began showing up each week. “And then it really took off” in 2013, Carlisle said. By early 2020, 60 to 70 people gathered regularly for the Northampton lunch. In all, about 300 gathered for lunch across Building Bridges’ five weekly sites, while up to 200 gathered monthly in four other towns. Of Massachusetts’ nearly 7 million residents, 323,253 were veterans in 2017. In 2019, an estimated 19 million Americans, or nearly 6% of the population, had served in the military. Most served during the Gulf War (7.6 million) or the Vietnam War (6.3 million), while fewer than half a million World War II veterans were still alive. Women comprise about 10% of veterans, a percentage reflected at Building Bridges’ lunches. Kelley feels comfortable and safe at Building Bridges, where “people feel like your brothers and sisters,” even among generations of peers, including post-9/11 veterans he’s met who served more tours in Afghanistan than he did in Vietnam. Connor, now director of Central Hampshire Veterans’ Services, said that younger veterans are equally, if not more, protective of their Vietnam War, Korean War and World War II elders. Veterans face “distinctive health issues related to their military service and are more likely to suffer from trauma-related injuries, substance abuse and mental health disorders than people who have never served in the armed services,” according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Transitioning from the military back to civilian life can make things harder. “There’s an adjustment, no matter who you are, leaving military culture and coming into the civilian culture,” said Connor, who has cooked for Building Bridges and promoted the program. “It’s a shock, as big of a shock as boot camp was taking you out of the old culture.” Connor served on an aircraft carrier from 1977 to 1979. He left the Navy two years early, after surviving a sexual assault involving a colleague, something he first talked about 12 years ago. Many veterans don’t address the emotional effects of their military experiences, Connor noted. “People who didn’t face it or didn’t work through it — for instance, me — it comes back,” he said. Every few weeks, Building Bridges features a speaker or program specific to veterans’ mental and physical health needs, and while it is a diocesan offering, only two lunch sites are churches. Carlisle, who isn’t a veteran, has learned that many feel judged or dismissed by organized religion. Attendees appreciate his subtle pastoral presence. “It’s really just bringing people together,” Fisher said. “It’s Eucharistic, right?” That simplicity has yielded profound effects; it’s common for veterans to say that the ministry saves lives. Connor and other veterans interviewed for this story talked about the social isolation felt by many veterans; studies show that veterans, even noncombatants, are at a higher risk of suicide than the general U.S. population. “I can’t count how many times I’ve had veterans come up to me and say they wish Building Bridges was nationwide,” said Associate Director Chad Wright. “Food gets them in the door. Camaraderie keeps them coming back.” Like others, Northampton resident Richard Rice initially went to Building Bridges for the food. The Vietnam War veteran and sculptor spoke to ENS in his studio, where fine white dust covered everything. At … Continue reading In Western Massachusetts, ministry brings veterans together for food, camaraderie