It started with a conversation about veteran suicide and what is causing the “22 a day” epidemic.
It continued with a promise, which became the Spartan Pledge.
The Spartan Pledge is a commitment among veterans to not take their own lives but rather stand for their fellow soldiers in times of despair. It was created almost accidentally by an Iraq veteran, Boone Cutler, when he spoke with another veteran, his friend “Nacho,” about a mutual friend’s suicide.
“I said to him, ‘Have you ever thought about it?’” Cutler remembered. “And he said, ‘Yeah, I think about it every day.’ And it blew me away. We’d never discussed that—and we were tight. We covered each other.”