Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
The 40-Cent Solution: How Simple Dog Tags Are Saving Veterans' Lives
What if saving a veteran's life could be as simple as a 40-cent dog tag? That's exactly what Ben Guinan and Robert Adamczyk from Dog Tags 4 Life are doing with their groundbreaking suicide prevention initiative.
The program began after a sobering moment during a national veterans' organization meeting when one member had to abruptly leave because a fellow post member had attempted suicide. Another participant mentioned experiencing a similar tragedy just weeks earlier. This reality check sparked a crucial question: How many veterans even know about the new 988+1 crisis line that launched in July 2022? After informal polling revealed almost no awareness, Dog Tags 4 Life was born.
Their approach is beautifully simple – military-style dog tags engraved with "Veterans Crisis Line - Dial 988 Then Press 1 - You're Not Alone." Veterans can wear them or attach them to keychains, creating both a visual and tactile reminder that help is always available. What started as a modest effort has exploded into a nationwide movement with over 55,000 tags distributed across 48 states.
The impact has been profound. One mother shared how her son called to say goodbye, intending to end his life. Seeing the dog tag on her desk, she frantically told him, "Dial 988, then press 1!" He made the call, and counselors kept him on the line until his post commander arrived. Another veteran wrote simply, "I held onto this dog tag physically. I heard it jingling, and that's why I made the call. Thank you for saving my life."
Perhaps most impressive is the organization's efficiency—operating with just three volunteer board members, it ensures every donation goes directly toward producing and shipping more tags. There are no salaries or massive overhead, just a direct pipeline getting life-saving resources into veterans' hands.
Visit DT4life.org to donate or request tags for the veterans in your life. For just pennies, you could provide the reminder that saves someone during their darkest moment.
Good morning. I'm your host, Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services, here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and this week our guests are Ben Guymon and Robert Adamczyk, and they are with an organization called Dog Tags also with the VFW local post here and we'll talk a little bit about that. But I ran into you guys a couple of years ago and I really loved what you were doing. It's an anti-suicide program and basically it puts the crisis line 988 plus 1, on a dog tag which veterans can wear or keep on their keys. I always have that reminder of where that number is, in case they forgot. Now we have a program here we called Operation Save the Number number is in case they forgot. Now we have a program here we called Operation Save the Number. Hope is spelled 988 plus one to get them to put it in their phone and their buddy's phone. But this is a fantastic program. So welcome to the podcast. Well, thanks for having us, larry.
Robert Adamczyk:Absolutely Thank you so tell us a little bit about how this got started and talk a little bit about your post too, because my recollection is that this came through the post and your association with the post. So it certainly came out of the VFW. There's an organization called the Military Order of the Cootie which is the honor degree of the VFW. I'm a national officer in that organization and I was on a national Zoom meeting not long after the 988 number came out and one of the people on the meeting said I'm sorry, guys, I got to go. One of my post members just tried to commit suicide. I got to go deal with this and he left the Zoom meeting. And when that happened, another member of the Zoom meeting said yeah, that just happened to me two weeks ago.
Robert Adamczyk:One of our post members died and I just got to thinking of. You know, it happens way too often. I mean, one is too many there's varying reports of is it 16?, is it 22?, is it more than that? But I'm just thinking well, what can I possibly do about this? And a couple of days later I was watching a documentary about someone who was volunteering on a crisis line. It was a different crisis line, but I got to thinking about it. The 988 number came out in July and this was happening around of 2022. And in February 2023 is when this was happening, and I was thinking I wonder how many people even know that that number exists. So I went out to our VFW and the Elks Lodge and a couple other places and just kind of did an informal poll of asking people do you know what the phone number is for the Veterans Crisis Line? No. Do you know what the phone number is for the Suicide Prevention Line? No. Did you know they were the same number? No. Have you ever heard of 988 plus 1? No. Wow.
Robert Adamczyk:Okay, so maybe I could come up with some idea that would get the number out into the hands of people.
Robert Adamczyk:And you know, from there I'm running through well, what kind of thing could I do that would be inexpensive but people would actually recognize and be able to take with them? And somehow the idea of the dog tag came to me, and after that it was all right. How do we do this? Can we put together a 501c to three to make this happen? If you do that, I need at least three people, so I needed to find one more, because I knew I had Ben without even talking to him, so I needed to find one more.
Robert Adamczyk:We found another guy from our post who volunteered when he even heard about the idea. Can I be involved? So that's Charles Marlow Romeo. He's our third board member and from there it's really taken off. We've now distributed dog tags to 48 states and over 55,000 dog tags.
Larry Zilliox:Wow, holy cow, it has taken off, and so, ben, is there any sign of it slowing down?
Ben Guinan:Not at all. From what I understand, what check keeps filling us in with the numbers that come in for the donations? People are just logging in, finding our website, seeing the donation links and just saying what a wonderful cause. Let me see what I can do to help. And so we've been very, very lucky to have the support of the general populace of veterans and veteran adjacent people that love this program, and we've been able to continue it through those generous donations.
Robert Adamczyk:And another thing is one of the decisions early on was to put the website address on the dog tag, and the point of that was if someone sees this, thinks it's a great idea and wants to get more to help continue spreading the word, they know how to get in contact with us.
Larry Zilliox:Let me just read what the dog tag says, so our listeners know it. It starts with veterans crisis line, dial 988. Then press one you're not alone dt4lifeorg. So, listeners, that's the web page, dt4lifeorg. And our regular listeners know that I always direct everybody to the webpage and you're going to see that donate button on there. I want you to bang on that button and give what you can. Um, because this is a. It's an amazing program and this tag could save somebody's life. And how much does this tag cost?
Robert Adamczyk:Depending on how many we order. 40 cents, so for 40 cents.
Larry Zilliox:you could put this in the hands of somebody who will remember that number and give that number a call and maybe put a pause in what they were thinking. And that's really what it's all about. It's same with Operation Save the Number. It's look, I'm putting this number in your phone. If you're having a bad day, you call me, but if I don't answer, don't go through with what you're thinking. You know if you're having a bad day, take this tag and hold it in your hand. You know Absolutely. You know. If you're having a bad day, take this tag and hold it in your hand. You know absolutely If you're. If you're a friend or a relative of a veteran, go to the Web page, make a donation, get some tags and give them to your family members and your friends, the people that you work with, who are veterans who haven't heard about this program. Give them a tag. I think makes a great Christmas present.
Robert Adamczyk:We really never expected to hear the impact that this had, but a couple of months ago I got an email from someone who was a mother and she said thank you so much for your program. Last night my son called me to say goodbye because he couldn't take it anymore and he was going to end his life. And I'm not trained for that kind of thing. I had no idea what to do, but I saw your dog tag sitting on my desk and I yelled at him dial 988, then press one. Dial 988, then press one. And he did, and they kept him on the line until their post commander made it over to his house and he talked him down, and so she was just so thankful that that was there, because she had no idea what to do if it wasn't for that tag.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah and Ben, I'm sure you hear stories like that all the time.
Ben Guinan:There was one early on Check out an email and we had discussed between the two of us when we thought this might be a successful program and the comment all three of us actually agreed upon is if we helped one person, yeah, sure, and we got an email very early on. He said thank you. I held onto this dog tag physically. I heard it jingling and that's why I made the call. Thank you all for saving my life.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah Well, listeners again, 40 cents is what it takes to save a veteran's life, to get them the help that they need. And one of the benefits of the 988 plus one line is that that is answered by VA counselors and that creates a record in the VA system for them. So now VA knows them. Not only does the VA have a record of them, and the counselor also, because people just don't up and one day decide well, you know, I just think I'll just kill myself today. It's because they're in pain, it's because of traumatic brain injury, it's because of substance abuse issues, because they're self-medicating. It's always the product of a lot of things. And putting them in touch with 988 plus one gives them contact with a system that can help with other issues, and that's what counselors do.
Larry Zilliox:And the benefit of the line is that once they're hooked into the system, then if it's a housing issue, if it's a justice involved issue, if it's a substance abuse issue, they will try to get them help on a number of different levels, because if you don't fix those problems, they're going to be right back to where they were when they called you for the first reason.
Larry Zilliox:And so I think just putting them in touch with 988 plus one is huge. The other thing that I like about this line is that it's a great resource for active duty soldiers, especially our tier one operators, because these are guys that have issues but will never self-identify because it takes them out of the game and so they don't want that. So they just leave their issues unchecked, untreated, when they could call 988 plus one or they can go to a vet center, and that vet center is not tied in with the regular VA and certainly not tied in with DOD. They can get help through this without their unit, their command, knowing that they are in peer group counseling or anything like that. So, and just getting the word out is just amazing.
Robert Adamczyk:And that's the big thing for us. Just to make clear, we are not associated with the crisis line at all. We've done this independently, where, if someone else wanted to make tags like this it's not like we have any kind of copyright on this or anything we're like sure. I'll tell you the company if you want to know.
Larry Zilliox:Well, make sure, though, you do put the web page on the bottom, because that's where the funding comes in and, let's face it, it just doesn't happen without funding, right? It just doesn't happen without funding, right. So, you know, make dog tags, but make sure you put that DT4lifeorg on them. You know and I say, copy this just what these words are, because, amazingly, it fits right on the dog tag.
Robert Adamczyk:And the nice thing is so early on because we are a 501c3 nonprofit organization. Early on I did the paperwork in New York State to become tax exempt in New York, which is where the company is that makes these dog tags for us. And it's the same company that makes the ball chain necklaces for the military's dog tags. It's the same company that provides them the chains so kind of keeping it in the family in that respect. Chains so kind of keeping it in the family. In that respect.
Robert Adamczyk:Sure, it really surprised us how far and wide this has gotten with not a whole lot of advertisement. I mean just to give you an idea of some of the places this tag has made it to. The people have requested tags Air Force Academy, army Reserve Units, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, several American legions, chasing Zero, dav, dvs, elks Lodge, garrison East Foundation, marine Corps League, VFW and its auxiliary SEAL, spouse Alliance, student Veterans Alliance, veterans Remembrance Memorial, women's Veterans Network. Several state and local governments have contacted us for these tags. It's really taken off, I think. Whenever I talked to Ben initially I said if we ever distribute 5,000 of these things I'll be stunned. And we're now at 55,000, and I have 15,000 sitting at my house to process right now. Wow.
Larry Zilliox:And so, Ben, how do you usually send them out? It's not one at a time. Are you sending out like 10, a hundred?
Ben Guinan:Well, it really depends on the requests that come in. Um, there are some requests that come in for a thousand and that we package those and we send them. And part of the money that we take in from donations, of what we use to pay for that shipping, we try not to. We try we try to keep all the cost within the donation money that we come in. Now, if anything goes over that, that just comes out of our pocket because this is so important to us. Well, that's got to stop.
Robert Adamczyk:It hasn't happened in a long time. It hasn't happened in a long time In the very early days. When we sort them out, we put them in Ziploc bags of 50 tags per and then we put those four of those into a gallon Ziploc bag and there's a plug for Ziploc if you can't send us some free bags.
Robert Adamczyk:You want to be a sponsor. But so in processing them, we thought, well, we'll just pay for the bags out of our own pocket. And well, we also want these business cards to go with it. They have the crisis line number on it. We'll pay those out of our own pocket. Well then we started getting some traction and taking off and getting more and more donations and we went okay, we're, I think we're good. Now the company can pay for these things. Yeah, for sure.
Larry Zilliox:Really. I mean, the overhead here is minimal. You guys are not paid employees, it's a nonprofit. It's just the three of you, right? So you know, I mean really listeners go to the webpage, um uh, dt4lifeorg. Make a donation. You know there's a lot of VSOs in this country almost 47,000. And there's some ones that are doing amazing work. And you know, I I talked to a, a gentleman the other day. He has an amazing nonprofit. He's got 40 employees, you know, and, but they are doing crazy good work. And so you want to donate to dog Tags for Life because 99%, 100% of it goes to getting these dog tags into the right hands. There's no salaries, there's no trips to the Bahamas for a corporate meeting, there's nothing like that. It's just them ordering these up and then taking the time to package them up and ship them out. Now, what about volunteers? If somebody wants to volunteer and help you do that, how would they do?
Robert Adamczyk:that. So we have had people locally help with that. The logistical challenge with that is so let me give you a little backstory on how we process these ourselves. So they come in the last shipment came nine boxes. So divide 15,000 up between nine boxes. Each one of those boxes has a large plastic bag in it with one ninth of the tags in that bag. Wow, and the tags are each in one little small Ziploc plastic bag with one tag and one ring, and the tag is not on the ring.
Robert Adamczyk:When we tried this initially, we put 50 of the tags in the plastic bags in our display case. It just we went no, that's not going to work. They really need to be on the rings before we send them out. So, yes, what you're thinking is true. Between me, ben Romeo and a couple of local people who help us from time to time, we have taken 55,000 tags out of the bag, put them on the ring and then put them in bags of 50. Ring and then put them in bags of 50. That's the work. But the challenge, if anyone else wanted to help, is getting them from where we have them centrally over to them to then help, and then actually shipping them out from there. I've got the account information to get cheaper shipping through UPS, or we've got the label printer to do the shipments for the post office and it's just more efficient to do it locally in that respect.
Larry Zilliox:Well, I'm almost thinking that what you need are groups to come in and just the putting on the ring on the tag, or getting it out of the plastic, you know, to bring a group of scouts in, or I mean the post. I'm sure that you could use the post.
Robert Adamczyk:We have had that in several occasions. We've had groups down at the VFW and the local Elks Lodge down the street from us in Dale City and other various people here and there have helped. Local schools helped out here and there. So we have had some help along the way. One thing I did want to point out Larry's exactly right Go to dogtagsforlifeorg but keep in mind that's DT, the number for lifeorg and more importantly really, or as important as hitting the donate button, is contact us to get some tags to distribute yourself, because we generally send them out in batches of 50. Some tags to distribute yourself, because we generally send them out in batches of 50.
Larry Zilliox:That's, it just works really well, Grab 50 of them for yourself and pass them to every veteran, you know? Yeah, Well, what I'm hoping is that you guys will set up a table here for our Corvette show July 19th Saturday and locally people can come out to the Corvette show and get tags.
Robert Adamczyk:I missed the last one, but the one before that I was here with a table.
Ben Guinan:Yeah, so we need to do that again, and this year the national convention actually got moved to August, so we'll be in town and absolutely we will be there.
Larry Zilliox:Okay. So, listeners, there's your chance to come and get some tags. I mean, you know before you show up here. Well, one, you're going to have a great time. There's going to be 250 or more Corvettes and classic cars on the property. You get a free lunch, you can tour the houses, there'll be a number of VSOs here, but Dog Tags for Life will be here. So before you come, sit down and mentally make a note, think okay, who can I give a tag to? There's Joe at work, that's one, uncle Bob, that's two, and start counting them off and then, when you get here, you let them know how many you need and maybe get a few extra for people you forgot and go home and start giving them out because they're not doing any good. Sitting in check's garage, absolutely, and I'm sure your wife is ready for you to find someplace else for all this stuff Actually right now they're sitting in, so again it's DT4lifeorg.
Larry Zilliox:Go to the webpage, check it out. If you're not local, order some tags, they will get them out to you. What is about the time, Ben, that it takes to get things turned around and out to people?
Ben Guinan:Realistically it takes very, very little time. As an IT consultant I do work from home quite a bit of the time. So if the check gets an order in, he can get the tag ready to go. I can box the stuff up, I can take it to UPS on lunch break and it's gone almost in the next day or two. Okay, so within a week you've got about a quarter.
Larry Zilliox:Very quick turnaround? Yeah, okay. So within a week you've got a very quick turnaround. Yeah, okay. So that's great. So think about that too. If you're a listener out there at a post, a VFW post, an American Legion post or your organization, you know you're thinking of just a veterans group at a company and you've got 15 veterans and they're going to have a monthly meeting, order some up and then the next meeting hand them out and get the word out and they then can order some for their friends. There's no excuse now. Really, everybody knows about it. All 12 of our listeners are going to know about it.
Robert Adamczyk:One thing I would like to point out. If any of your listeners are in Utah or Rhode Island, I was going to ask what are the two states? Please contact me. You would think it would be Hawaii and Alaska. It's not. We've distributed tags there. We are missing Utah and Rhode Island, and if I get Utah I will drive to Rhode Island.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, well, listeners, if you're in one of those states, you have a mailing address in one of those states, and I know we have listeners in Utah. I know that for a fact. Um, very odd thing is uh, I can look at all the analytics for the podcast. 93% of listeners are here in the United States, but we have listeners in in Sweden, in Germany, in France, in Japan, which baffles me. The only thing I can think of is those are active duty soldiers who are posted there. But I was really surprised when I saw that. So there's no excuse. It's not like there's no veterans in Utah. That's ridiculous that we don't have all 50 states Listen.
Larry Zilliox:I can't thank you guys enough for coming, stopping by, sitting down and letting everybody know about this amazing, amazing organization. 100% of your donation goes towards helping veterans and saving lives at roughly 40 cents apiece. Just the thought that you could save somebody's life for 40 cents just baffles me. I mean, I don't know how you can't make a donation to Dog Tags for Life. So I'm just going to start with each of you. I'm going to start, ben, with you. What's the one thing you want everybody to know about? Dog Tags for Life?
Ben Guinan:The thing that really made me get into this program immediately after Chuck told me about it is they're for the greatest guy go-I. It's things I've had to deal with, but what I love about the dog tags is it's something you can hold onto. It's not a piece of paper, it's something you can feel and that one line on there, you are not alone. That's what I would like people to take away from this. Check how about you.
Robert Adamczyk:So for me, something that was unexpected that we discovered after we started putting them on people's keychains is when you pick up your keys and you jingle them, they make a certain sound. When that keychain has a dog tag on it, it changes the sound that it makes and once you've heard it, you can't unhear it. You notice that sound every time you pick up your keys. You know that tag is there and you know what it says.
Larry Zilliox:I know everybody hears me coming and at our post.
Robert Adamczyk:Before I turn the corner they're hi, good morning Lou. And at our post, when we hear people get up and pick up their keys, we can hear it. They got a tag, they got a tag, they got a tag. It just changes the tone of that and that was really unexpected. But very good, wow, very happy that.
Larry Zilliox:All right, well, listen. Thank you so much for joining us. Listeners, again it's DT4lifeorg. Go to the webpage, make a donation order, some tags, give them to your friends and loved ones, and 40 cents a piece. You're going to save a life. I guarantee it. Well, listeners, that's it for this week. You can find us on most major platforms. We're also on YouTube and Wreaths Across America, so thank you for listening.
