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.
Boone Cutler, the author of the “Spartan Pledge,” along with recording artist “Soldier Hard,” retired FDNY Firefighter Danny Prince, and USMC Veteran Steve Danyluk, talk about the birth of the “Spartan Pledge” and its evolution into a movement designed to help our Nation’s Warriors live with a purpose. Produced and Directed by Musa Productions and the All Warrior Network.
Posted by All Warrior Network on Wednesday, January 25, 2017
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.”
Off the cuff, Cutler and his buddy made a promise.
“You really can’t think too far ahead when you’re in that state of mind, so I said, ‘Just call. Just call me first. Don’t punk out. Don’t go without saying goodbye,’” Cutler told his friend. “And then we made an agreement to at least call each other first.”
Other veterans helped that evolve into what Cutler started calling the Spartan Pledge, which he said around a thousand veterans have made. It’s just two lines, meant to give vets a pause before they hurt themselves:
“I will not take my own life by my own hand until I talk to my battle buddy first. My mission is to find a mission to help my warfighter family.”
Veterans commit suicide at a 50-percent higher rate than those who did not serve in the military, according to a study published last year from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The 2015 DAV Veterans Pulse Survey found that 1 in 4 veterans see suicide as one of the biggest challenges facing those who have served.
“You don’t have to be suicidal to take the pledge,” said Steve “Luker” Danyluk, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel who’s also taken up the cause. “It’s finding a mission: Help your buddy. It’s reconnecting, re-establishing those relationships that seem to vanish once you leave the military.”
When Danyluk and retired New York City Fire Department firefighter Danny Prince started talking about 25 pounds of steel recovered from the World Trade Center and the aftermath of the tragedy on 9/11, their conversation became about how they could use that powerful symbolism to bring attention to the terrible epidemic of veteran suicide as well.
Prince, a Coast Guard veteran, visited injured veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center last fall. With him, he carried the 25 pounds of scrap metal.
“It’s remarkable, the pieces of steel that we have. They’re so important, and you don’t want to waste anything,” said Prince.
Danyluk had an idea to turn the steel remnants into a symbol for veterans and first responders everywhere that could potentially open up the conversation and save veterans’ lives. What evolved was nothing short of powerful. They started moving on a plan to gather veterans and first responders together and forge the steel into a “Spartan Sword.”
“The pure, almost religious nature of the steel from the World Trade Center was transformed into something about healing,” said Danyluk.
The 9/11 attacks motivated a lot of people to join the military, Danyluk said, so the symbolism of the sword is important. “It’s about transformation—taking this twisted steel that was part of our nation’s greatest tragedy and turning it into something beautiful: a weapon of healing rather than a weapon of destruction.”