When you sit down to write a novel, you never know how much impact your words will have on people you will never meet. In 1996 my sister and I had to self-publish A Certain Brotherhood because New York editors didn’t believe a market existed for Vietnam novels. Vietnam isn’t very New York, but for many of us in the hinterlands of America, our experiences in Southeast Asia were pivotal points in our lives.

A Certain Brotherhood couldn’t inspire NY editors, but it inspired the founding of a new veterans organization, The Thailand-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (TLC Brotherhood). I am proud that hundreds of veterans have found a new sense of pride in their service to our country during the war in Southeast Asia. That alone makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Another source of great pride is the TLC Brotherhood’s support for several humanitarian projects in Thailand through the VFW’s Udorn Memorial Post 10249. In memory of our brothers who did not return with us, we’ve contributed more than $30,000 to help hundreds of people in need.

In 2000 I took a somewhat sentimental journey back to Thailand to visit the airfield where I lived in 1967 and to visit our projects. The marching band at the orphanage gave us an enthusiastic concert with band instruments the Brotherhood had given the orphanage for Christmas 1999. For Christmas 2000, the TLC Brotherhood donated 150 desks and chairs, which were manufactured on the local Thai economy for the Brotherhood.

These humanitarian projects are documented in the Assistance Section of the website of the TLC Brotherhood. http://www.tlc-brotherhood.org/ I am proud these projects help preserve the memory of those who didn’t return with us. We went to Southeast Asia to help the free peoples of the region, and we carry on some thirty years later. I estimate that more than 99% of the donations to the TLC Brotherhood Assistance Fund go directly to help those in need.

In addition to A Certain Brotherhood inspiring my return to Thailand last year, it has taken me with other brothers and sisters on a special visit to The Wall in 1999. I was privileged to stand before The Wall with a dozen other veterans of the War in Southeast Asia as we solemnly read the names of 1,429 Americans who died in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. In July 2002 we will return to The Wall and read more than 1,600 names.

Some of us have been able to help surviving families attain more closure. We’ve answered many questions no one else had answered for the families in more than 30 years.

Stealth Press’s recent publication of the hardcover edition of ACB has encouraged me to keep encouraging other writers to persevere and continue to improve their skills. After all, you never know what your words will do for other people.

Jimmie H. Butler

Colonel, USAF, Retired

Author of: A Certain Brotherhood, The Iskra Incident,

and Red Lightning—Black Thunder