Military life can have lasting impacts only other veterans fully understand, veteran Frank Hansen, senior minister at Wiscasset’s Freedom Fellowship Church, said.

Over coffee on Tuesdays at the Bath Road church, a small group of area veterans have started meeting, just to talk, listen, or both.

The group, Wiscasset Vetogether, charges nothing, is open to any veteran and their adult family members and significant others in or outside the church, and does not require people to join in the discussion, but usually people want to, one of its organizers, Teresa Clark said.

It’s a chance to spend time with people who have had some of the same experiences as a veteran, a spouse, or, in her case, both, she said.

It’s different from talking with friends who have only known civilian life, she and Hansen said.

“You feel like you can talk and you’re not the only one out there that’s got struggles. And if I’m not having a tough day, then I can support the others,” Clark, of Wiscasset, said.

Clark is a retired Navy veteran; she served from 1980 to 2000. She met her husband Matthew Clark when both were serving as instructors in San Diego. He served in the Marine Corps from 1980 to 1993.

Both have taken part in group meetings that started in late 2015. 

“We’re just brand new and starting to connect with people,” Clark said about the group. “There’s a lot of vets out there, they just don’t know about each other.”

She helped start the group with Boothbay Harbor’s David Patch, acting commander of American Legion Post 36 in Boothbay Harbor.

Patch’s Naval service from 1961 to 1986 included three tours in Vietnam. He’d been going to a support group at a veterans center in Lewiston when he got the idea to have a group closer to home.

“Lewiston was a long way to go. It just became too hard,” Patch said. “So I began looking to try to do something.”

He had met Clark, a member of the Wiscasset church, when she was a counselor at the center in Lewiston and helping with that group. She is a state-licensed adult clinical social worker and alcohol and drug counselor, and serves as a counselor at the church. However, in the Tuesday group, she is not acting as a counselor; she is another attendee.

Those interviewed said they hope other veterans and loved ones will stop in any Tuesday they can. Patch usually misses one meeting a month, on the week he volunteers at a luncheon for veterans at an assisted living facility in Brunswick.

If there’s enough interest in the new group that meets at the church, more specific groups could serve spouses or veterans from different eras of service, organizers said; however, the group in its current state is already a success, they said.

“We enjoy the time to relax and share our life’s experiences,” Hatch said.

Hansen, who served in the Air Force from 1980 to 1990, agreed. “Sometimes, you just need to get the load off your chest ... It’s a good place for people to meet and talk in ‘militarese,’ and they can open up where maybe they haven’t before ... We’ve been very happy with the response,” he said about the gatherings.

One veteran’s wife who attended found that, until then, she hadn’t fully appreciated that others were going through some of the same things she was, Hansen said.

Attendees must be at least 18 years old. Clark added that, while people can talk about their experiences with the Veteran’s Administration, the group does not get involved with VA matters. Those need to be handled directly with the VA or through a service organization, she said.

The group meets Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m at the church, 731 Bath Road, opposite Norm’s Used Cars. For more information, call Hansen at 841-2867.