If you or a veteran you know needs help right now:
Dial 988, then press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line — free, confidential, 24/7. You do not need to be enrolled in VA health care or registered with the VA.
You can also text 838255 or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net. If someone is in immediate danger, call 911.
The American Legion’s Be the One initiative rests on a premise that sounds almost too simple: the person most likely to notice a veteran is struggling isn’t a clinician. It’s whoever talks to them regularly.
Here’s what the initiative asks of people, what a Buddy Check actually involves, and — most usefully — what to say when you’re worried about someone.
What Be the One Asks
Be the One is The American Legion’s veteran suicide prevention initiative. Its mission is to reduce the number of veterans and service members lost to suicide, and it works on three fronts: reducing the stigma around seeking mental health treatment, providing free suicide prevention training, and equipping ordinary people to act when someone may be at risk.
The name is the ask. Be the one to reach out. Be the one to ask the hard question. Be the one who listens.
Buddy Checks: The Practical Version
A Buddy Check is deliberately unglamorous — a phone call, a text, an email, or a visit to a fellow veteran. That’s the whole thing.
The scale it operates at is what makes it notable. In 2024, 4,624 Legion posts conducted Buddy Checks reaching 341,049 veterans, part of more than a million veterans contacted over five years.
Many posts run them quarterly or monthly rather than waiting for a designated week. The point isn’t the calendar — it’s that somebody notices when a name hasn’t come up in a while.
Warning Signs Worth Noticing
Crisis rarely announces itself. It usually shows up as a change in someone’s normal pattern.
| Category | What to Watch For |
|---|---|
| Mood | Increased anxiety, agitation, anger, or expressions of hopelessness |
| Withdrawal | A usually sociable person staying home; stopping responses to calls, texts, or emails |
| Behavior | Increased drinking, risky or self-destructive activity, missing medical appointments |
| Putting affairs in order | Giving away prized possessions, arranging long-term care for pets |
| Talk | References to being a burden, to “ending it all,” or to not being around |
None of these is proof of anything on its own. A cluster of them, or a sharp change from someone’s baseline, is worth a conversation.
What to Actually Say
Most people freeze here, worried about saying the wrong thing. The guidance from crisis professionals is more forgiving than you’d expect.
Opening the Conversation
Name what you’ve noticed, plainly: “I’ve noticed you’ve been dealing with a lot lately. I care about you. What’s been going on?”
Then stop talking. Listening without interrupting or rushing to solutions is what makes someone feel heard.
Asking Directly
If you’re worried about suicide, ask about it directly rather than in euphemisms: “Are you thinking about killing yourself?”
Vague phrasing like “hurting yourself” means different things to different people. And the fear that stops most people from asking is unfounded — asking someone about suicidal thoughts does not plant the idea or increase their risk. It usually does the opposite: it tells them the subject isn’t off-limits with you.
What Helps and What Doesn’t
- Do say things like “Thank you for telling me that.”
- Do let them decide how much to share.
- Do remind them you’re there — and mean it.
- Don’t minimize: skip “look on the bright side” and “at least it’s not as bad as…”
- Don’t dominate the conversation with your own experiences.
- Don’t promise to keep it secret if someone is in danger.
You Can Call the Crisis Line for Someone Else
This is the least-known and most useful fact in this whole article: you don’t have to be the person in crisis to call 988 and press 1.
Crisis counselors regularly take calls from people worried about a veteran in their life. They’ll help you read the situation, talk through warning signs, and work out how to connect that person with professional help.
If you’re unsure whether a situation warrants a call, that uncertainty is itself a good reason to make one.
What to Do After the Conversation
Reaching out once is useful. Following through is what actually helps.
- Stay in contact. A single check-in is easy to dismiss; a pattern of them is harder to disappear from.
- Offer a concrete next step rather than a general one. “I’ll drive you to the VA appointment Thursday” lands better than “you should get help.”
- Connect them to a service officer if part of the strain is practical — denied claims, benefits confusion, and money pressure are real contributors. Our guide to free VA claim help from service officers covers that side.
- Bring them somewhere. Isolation compounds everything. An invitation to a specific event on a specific day is more effective than an open-ended “stop by sometime.”
- Don’t carry it alone. If you’re supporting someone in crisis, the crisis line is there for you too.
Why Veterans Sometimes Don’t Reach Out
Understanding the hesitation makes it easier to work around. Service culture rewards self-reliance and treats needing help as a liability — which is adaptive in uniform and costly afterward.
There’s also a persistent worry that seeking mental health care will jeopardize benefits, employment, or firearms rights. Reducing that stigma is precisely why Be the One puts as much weight on normalizing treatment as on crisis response.
On the benefits half of that worry, the rating criteria actually work the other way: symptoms controlled by continuous medication are compensable, and gaps in treatment are more often read as improvement. Our guide to how VA rates mental health conditions lays out what each level means.
Where a Post Fits In
A Legion post is, structurally, a list of veterans who know each other and a building where they gather. That makes it unusually well-suited to noticing absences.
Regular contact is the mechanism — someone at a bingo night, a canteen meal, or a monthly meeting notices a familiar face missing for a few weeks and picks up the phone. That’s what Buddy Checks formalize.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Veterans Crisis Line number?
Dial 988 and press 1. You can also text 838255 or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net. It’s free, confidential, and available 24/7.
Do I need to be enrolled in VA health care to use it?
No. The Veterans Crisis Line is available to all veterans, service members, and their family members regardless of VA enrollment or registration.
Can I call if I’m worried about someone else?
Yes. Crisis counselors are trained to help family members and friends support a veteran in their life.
Will asking about suicide make things worse?
No. Asking directly about suicidal thoughts does not give someone the idea or increase their risk.
What is a Buddy Check?
A simple outreach to a fellow veteran by phone, text, email, or in person. Legion posts organize them regularly, and in 2024 alone they reached over 341,000 veterans.
What is Be the One?
The American Legion’s veteran suicide prevention initiative, focused on reducing stigma, offering free prevention training, and equipping people to act when a veteran may be at risk.
Be the One
You don’t need training to make a phone call. If someone’s been on your mind, that’s the signal — call them today. To get involved with Buddy Checks through Post 51, call (541) 451-1351.
Veterans Crisis Line: dial 988, then press 1. Text 838255. Available 24/7.