On the Oct. 1, 2022 Blue Ridge Honor Flight back to Asheville after a day-long trip to Washington, D.C., a hush fell over all the veterans on board as a man stood up at the front of the plane and read a poem from a book titled "Brothers Like These."

The man was veteran Steve Henderson, and the poem he read was by David Robinson. Robinson's poem talks about his trip overseas, fighting in the war, and it closes with this powerful line: "I wonder what my life would be if I never had to cross the sea, but if I had not I would not have met brothers like these."

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The poem was one of the ones featured in the book, which is a collection of poems written by local veterans published in 2017. It was the brainchild of Appalachian State University professor Joseph Banthanti and Dr. Bruce Kelly, who is a primary care physician at the Asheville VA Medical Center. It started out as an attempt to get veterans to tell their stories to help them cope with PTSD and it has now grown into a VA program which has been introduced in five North Carolina VA hospitals and clinics, as well as one in Virginia.

Six years later, it has also produced a second book titled "Brothers and Sisters Like These," which was published in January by Redhawk Publications. A few of these poems and stories in the book will be presented by the veteran's writing group (The NC Veterans Writing Alliance) in a public reading at 2 p.m. Jan. 29 at Flat Rock Playhouse's Leiman Mainstage. Tickets will be sold the day-of at the playhouse for $20, and proceeds go to the NC Veterans Writing Alliance and also to support Blue Ridge Honor Flight. Both books will also be available for purchase at the Playhouse for $15 each.

The book's project director is Ron Toler, a Vietnam veteran who is a retired pilot. A total of 36 veterans shared 77 stories, both in prose and poetry form, based on their experiences while serving in the military. Elizabeth Heaney was the writer in residence who helped the veterans write their stories, while Tessa Fontaine was the editor who prepared the selected stories for publishing, according to a news release.

"This time around we gave the members who had participated in classes since then an opportunity to contribute stories for this book. We called it 'Brothers and Sisters Like These,' because we have included women into our ranks and they have added a great deal to our membership," Toler said.

He said both books' main goal is to help service members dealing with PTSD from their experiences in the military.

"We have learned that there are organizations honoring veterans, like Blue Ridge Honor Flight, and there are organizations working with veterans who have had run-ins with the law and are trying to get back on the proper path, Veterans Treatment Court. There are programs helping veterans find peace working with the land, like the Veterans Healing Farm, and there are programs working with the arts trying to tell veterans' stories and help them heal. We fall into the latter category," Toler said.

The NC Veterans Writing Alliance holds three writing classes a year, helping veterans write their stories. The group also has classes once a week for eight weeks using a series of prompts to get the veterans writing.

"It can start out simple with a question like 'Where are you from?' and progresses from there. During the class the veterans are encouraged, but not required, to read aloud to the class what they wrote," Toler said. "The rest of the class is encouraged to listen carefully to each story and pick out words or phrases that stand out to them and tell the reader those words or phrases. So you have an individual writing and reading a story that they may have never shared with anyone, even members of their families, and you have a sympathetic audience who has generally had similar experiences giving positive feedback."

Once veterans have completed the class, they are invited to the biweekly meeting to give them an opportunity to continue writing and reading to a wider audience of fellow veterans.

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"We also attempt to give them an opportunity to read their story on a setting like the Flat Rock Playhouse. We have done major reading at the Asheville Community Theater (three times), Appalachian State University, Flat Rock Playhouse and several libraries in the Asheville area. Some of our members have done readings at Camp Lejeune and have been invited to read in Dare County and at the festival in Cherokee," Toler said.

Hendersonville's Ronald Kuebler said he signed up for a reading of "Brothers Like These" back in 2020, and then two years later, he received a phone call from the NC Veterans Writing Alliance, inviting him to join the group.

"I joined and learned a great deal about myself and fellow veterans. I've been a poet for over a year and I've started writing about a 41-year-old, Scott, with Down Syndrome and leukemia who passed away in May 2022. Writing poetry with NC Veterans Writing Alliance and sharing experiences with fellow vets is great therapy," Kuebler said.

With the second book published, another book is already in the works, Toler said.

"We feel our job now is to get the widest circulation possible and to continue the process. We are already starting to think about another book and lining up members for the new class," he said.

The books are achieving the goal of getting help veterans need and above all, getting their stories told.

On the Oct. 1 Blue Ridge Honor Flight trip to Washington, one of the tour guides on one of the charter buses was telling stories she had heard through the years from veterans who came to see the war memorials. As the trip was drawing to a close, she paused and looked around at all the veterans on the bus. A tear fell down her cheek as she closed with these words, "Tell your stories. Tell all your stories."

Both books are available for purchase at this link: https://brothersandsisterslikethese.com/shop and also on Amazon.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: WNC veterans to present their second book, 'Brothers and Sisters Like These'