Legionnaires are encouraged to use week surrounding Veterans Day to reach out to their fellow veterans. We want to know how those efforts went last week.
To reach out to members and former members who may need help, the National Executive Committee passed Resolution 18 during Spring Meetings in May 2019. The resolution calls for Buddy Checks to be conducted Legion-wide on the weeks of The American Legion’s birthday, March 15, and Veterans Day, Nov. 11.
Now, we want to know what Legionnaires, posts and other members of the American Legion Family did last week to check on the wellbeing of their fellow veterans.
Individuals and posts who staged Buddy Checks efforts are encouraged to share their plans with us. Email sbrooks@legion.org with the details and then share your stories and photos at www.legiontown.org in the Buddy Check section.
Since 2020, nearly 1.8 million Buddy Checks have been conducted on current and former Legionnaires. Most recently, the 2024-2025 Consolidated Post Reports noted that 4,258 posts participated in Buddy Checks, impacting 361,871 veterans.
While the weeks surrounding Veterans Day and Legion Birthday are ideal times to perform Buddy Checks, there is a need for the outreach to happen throughout the year. Veterans can struggle finding new purpose after transition, and coping with post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injury and other social, economic, mental or physical stressors. This critical time in a veteran’s life is when they are most vulnerable to suicide or other self-harm. Suicide awareness and prevention is the most consequential responsibility of our generation of Legionnaires, and the Buddy Check is just one of the many ways The American Legion hopes to address the crisis.
To assist your Buddy Check efforts, we’ve created multiple resources, including a toolkit, available for download.
- Buddy Check