‘Be the One’ featured prominently during Legacy Run kickoff event

Prior to this year’s American Legion Legacy Run, Chief Road Captain Mark Clark said the ride was a great opportunity to share the word about the Legion’s “Be the One” campaign to reduce veteran suicides.

During the kickoff ceremony Aug. 20 in the Aircraft Pavilion at the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park, that sentiment was on full display. Various guest speakers joined with Legion Family members in sharing the need to raise suicide awareness and while being there for their fellow veterans.

Clark asked for a show of hands for those in attendance who knew a fellow veteran who took his or her own life. “This is the magnitude of our problem,” said Clark after seeing the response to his request. “This is the challenge we face. This is why the world’s largest veterans organization has put its weight behind this ‘Be the One’ campaign. That’s why this campaign is going to be embedded in what we do. That’s why each of us in this room are going to be the one to save a life.”

Retired U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Paulette Risher, a former organizational psychologist and co-chair of Alabama’s Challenge for Preventing Suicide Among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families, said the Legacy Run itself is an extension of ‘Be the One’.

“It’s being there for each other,” Risher said. “While the highest percentage of veteran suicides is among younger veterans … the highest number by 300 percent look like us. Older. Those who served in Vietnam. I see it every day. They’re hurt. They’re alone. They’re sick. And they think nobody cares.

“When I see a group like this that’s going to go out … and have some good conversations … there’s something about a group ride. That passion comes back. And you become a tribe. And that’s what I think you are doing. So this ‘Be the One’ is a very powerful campaign.”

Risher noted that while suicide prevention efforts can make a different with all segments of the population, its veterans who are more at risk to take their own lives.

“Suicide is not a veteran issue,” Risher said. “It’s a human issue. It’s a community issue. It’s a world issue. It’s a public health issue. But the veterans who have ended their lives or are vulnerable for doing so, it comes because of their service. They served us, and they’re paying the price.

“And I will tell you that veterans are a vulnerable population. A male veteran is 1.3 times more likely to have died by suicide. A female veteran is 2.1 times more likely than her civilian counterpart. That’s the stark reality of it.”

Risher asked those in attendance to not use the phrase “committed suicide. ‘Died by suicide’. Not ‘committed suicide’. It’s not a crime. It’s a tragedy.”

Also discussing the issue was retired U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Gen. Janet Cobb, who spent 42 years in the military and now serves as executive director of the USS Alabama facility. “Think about this campaign of ending veteran suicides,” she said. “We are responsible for each other. We cannot leave each other behind. It’s our sacred responsibility to each other, and to the those coming behind who serve.”

American Legion National Commander Paul E. Dillard said the organization has pledged to “’Be the One’ to stop more veterans by taking their own lives. We will do this by listening, providing mental health support providing peer-to-peer support. We will ‘Be the One’ to insist that veterans have access to all the resources necessary to overcome any issues that lead them to contemplate harming themselves.”