Robert LeHeup found the connection he was looking for after giving a TedX talk in Columbia in 2010. After serving in the Marine Corps Infantry in Afghanistan, he knew he had to vent his emotions to ease the despair consuming his life. 

“I realized how a small piece of my story alleviated itself,” he said of the experience. “The connection itself sort of exercised its demons. Writing down my story and then letting my story be heard reinforced the fact that I had a place in the community.”

LeHeup started volunteering at various creative events and then pairing other veterans’ stories with words and artwork and it was in 2019 he realized the magnitude of his work.

The resulting Bullets and Bandaids became an official nonprofit in 2019. The mission of the organization is to provide an opportunity for veterans and civilians to work with one another in a touring art program that spans the world, according to its website. 

The organization invites any and all veterans to tell their story through the written word, art or both. Stories are either written by the veteran or by an assigned writer. An assigned artist creates a piece, and together they’re compiled in a book. There have been three books thus far.

“We find veterans from privates to generals to veterans from World War II or we find friends and families of veterans who tell a story,” LeHeup said. “If it’s written down, that’s great. If not, we will supply a writer. We put art and stories in a book and then tour participating cities. We tell what it means to be a human in a world with war.”

The topics have covered a lot of ground.

“We’ve covered sexual assault, LGBTQ issues and racial disparity,” LeHeup said. “There’s also pride, hope and brotherhood and sisterhood. Having stories from people from all demographics work together on something much larger creates dialogue reinforc[es] on macro and micro scale that we’re sharing a human journey and that there is support and understanding on that journey.”

COVID-19 stung the group, but still, the organization managed to pull together a tour.

The nonprofit is run entirely by volunteers.

One Bullets and Bandaids writer and veteran said he’s all for the organization and its purpose. Shawn Dickens was in the military for 16 years total, serving six years in the Navy and 10 years in the Marine Corps.

He kept noticing Bullets and Bandaids popping up on social media, and eventually they connected. Dickens shared his story, and he’s also written other veterans’ stories.

“Writing my story was different from writing other stories,” he said. “For me to put it on paper was a little complicated. I had to rewrite my story like 10 times.”

The organization wants to “shine some light that everyone is human. Vets have a stigma that all vets are messed up from war but a small percentage actually are in combat. It’s nice to see different aspects of experiences from vets. It’s not all doom and gloom,” Dickens added.

While the group has helped many different veterans tell their stories, it can be somewhat difficult getting older veterans to share.

Veterans or their families and friends can head to bulletsandbandaids.org to start the process. Writers and artists can also get in touch via the website.

“There’s sadness and humor and anger in situations,” Dickens said. “To see it paired with artwork is an emotional thing. You can’t just go in and just see or just read stories. It’s a full package to observe it. A lot of vets don’t think their stories matter.”

The next Bullets and Bandaids event is a block party and cookout in Cayce, and will feature live music, workshops and performances. The organization is also planning to have an exhibit with the Columbia Museum of Art later this year.