If You Intend to End Veteran Suicide, It’s a Wonderful Life Provides the Way

It’s that awful/joyful holiday time again, when we are doing our best to join with the season’s hopes and joys, but weighed down by the pain we see and experience around us. Of those, none seem to tear at our hearts more significantly than losing someone to suicide.

When a veteran or armed forces member commits that final, desperate act, the grief goes beyond personal to national, and almost beyond solace. 

There are only 1.4M Americans in the military today out of a population of 330M. Another 19 million Americans are veterans. At only seven percent of the population, veterans and active-duty military contribute to 20+ percent of suicides.

The VA puts the rate of suicide for veterans at 22 per day. Deeper research reveals it to be closer to twice that: 44 per day. 44 per day!!! Despite millions/billions of dollars being thrown at this problem by the VA and public and private charities, the statistic holds steady.

An Opportunity to earn your wings

That number can and needs to be lessened. But, true to the old saying, “Nothing changes until something changes." 

That “something” has made itself available since 1946 – almost 80 years ago – in a modest film called It’s A Wonderful Life. It was about a good man going down, seeing suicide as his only way to financial redemption, and how community…abetted by a second-class angel called Clarence…changed all that.

Its protagonist, George Bailey, has given up on his personal dreams by taking on the burden of managing the business of the Bedford Falls Savings and Loan, which was willed to him by his father.

All is relatively well until, through a cruel twist of fate, he finds himself at the edge of bankruptcy and personal ruin on Christmas Eve. It’s just too much to take. His solution, his way out, is to commit suicide so that his $15,000 life insurance policy will cover the losses. 

In driving snow, he heads to a bridge over a surging river to do exactly that. Heaven sends an unlikely rescuer, Angel 2nd Class Clarence Odbody, who, over the past 200 years, has yet to do enough good to get his wings. His assignment: bring George, who wishes he had never been born, to a better understanding of the value of his life and lead him from this desperate act.

What value?” George would argue, unaware that had there been no George Bailey, there would not have been a war-hero aviator brother downing Japanese Kamikazes to save a transport ship full of soldiers, no one to rescue a pharmacist from a 20-year manslaughter sentence for incorrectly filling a prescription causing a child to die, no one with the moral fiber to balance the greed and avarice of the banker, Harry Potter, and…well…you get the idea.

Finally aware of his worth, George returns home to face his fate head-on, only to find that the townspeople and his family and friends have rallied to more than meet the deficit and save the Savings and Loan (and George from prison). Not to forget the bonus. George, in turn, helped Clarence to earn his wings. 

More Clarences Needed? Those Prayers are Being Answered

End Veteran Debt (EVD), along with a significant number of veteran and civilian organizations and charities, has taken on the task with renewed determination as we enter 2026. First, by building a shore-to-shore awareness of the insidious effect of debt and how it can take our loved ones from us. 

EVD will do this nationally through campaigns we call Operation Debt-Day and educational “micro-summits” that help healthcare professionals connect debt with suicidal ideation and explore the remedies. Monies raised in local co-fundraising efforts will be used to address smaller but critical financial challenges facing veterans living next door.

Think of it. In almost every instance of social and/or economic stress, debt is present. Homelessness, job, food and housing insecurity, marital discord, run-ins with the law, PTSD, loneliness… You can be sure that, in some way, debt precedes, is caused by, or follows the event. Just as debt preceded George Bailey’s decision to end his life.

We need more wings flapping, more bells ringing.

Within all of us, there is that much-needed “Clarence” quality that times of need call for. In that spirit, select your best path to make the lives of our returned warriors easier. Google and visit the websites of organizations that are deeply invested in suicide counseling, prevention, and mental health. See how you might be of help. They are waiting for your call.

To get you started, here are a few that EVD has connected with whose missions align with ours. 

Tunnel to Towers (T2T), Face The Fight (FTF), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), Onward Ops, and Zero Suicide. If you have a few spare dollars, visit our website by clicking here and donate. It will be put to good, bell-ringing use.

Cya at the bell-ringing ceremony.