Phantom Soldier · Veteran stories, told as songs

Every veteran has a story they don't tell. Send us yours.

We turn the stories veterans send in into songs. What happened, who it was for, what you still carry. You approve every word before anyone else hears a note, and it costs you nothing. Phantom Soldier is run on a non-profit basis; whatever the music earns is donated to veteran suicide prevention.

Send your story Hear the EP

Debut EP “The Same Right Hand” is out now on all major platforms

Why songs

Bottom line up front

Veterans have stories that don't survive translation. On paper they read like a report. Out loud they stop a room, so we mostly keep them to ourselves. A song can carry one the whole distance. You bring the truth. We handle the words, the music, and the release.

Most of us have one story we've told maybe twice, and a dozen we've never told at all. Not because they're classified. There's just no good moment for them. They don't fit in a conversation at work, they're too heavy for a cookout, and they're too plain for a ceremony.

So this is the moment for them. Any branch, any era, any job you held. You send yours in, and if it becomes a song, you decide whether anyone else ever hears it. This started because one veteran needed it to exist. He wasn't the only one.

And fair warning about the audience: this is niche music on purpose. Plenty of people who never served won't feel it, and that's fine. It isn't designed to go viral. It's designed for you. Tell your story, sometimes just to yourself, and share it only if you want it shared.

The example

The first record is out.

We weren't going to ask anybody to hand over their story until we'd gone first, so the first five songs are our own. The Same Right Hand came out in July 2026 and it's on all the major platforms now.

Full disclosure, because you'll wonder when you hit play: these songs are made with AI. The lyrics are drafted with AI's help and the music is produced with Suno. What's real is the stories, and what's human is the part that matters: a real person works with you directly, start to finish.

If you're deciding whether to send your story in, listen first. It's the honest answer to the question everybody asks: what will you do with it.

Phantom Soldier · Debut EP · 2026

The Same Right Hand

Five songs, 22 minutes. Every play carries it a little further.

Spotify YouTube Music Apple Music Amazon Music

Nobody gets paid for these songs

Phantom Soldier is run on a non-profit basis, and formal 501(c)(3) status is in progress. Whatever the music brings in, streams, sales, any of it, gets donated to veteran suicide prevention. That happens automatically. It isn't a pledge somebody has to remember to honor. And straight talk on scale: streaming pays fractions of a cent, so right now the number is small. The commitment doesn't change with the size of the check.

Veterans are never charged a dime for any of this, and the songs aren't income for anyone. Making the songs with AI instead of hiring a studio is part of how: there's no recording bill to pay off, so what a song earns is free to go where it should. If a song puts a phone number in front of one person on a night they needed it, the record did its job.

How it works

Four steps. The story stays in your control the whole way.

You send the story

Use the form on this page. A paragraph is enough to start. It doesn't need to be polished or in order.
A real person writes you back

Your story gets read by a person, not a system, and you'll hear back by email. If something's unclear, or a detail that matters isn't there yet, we'll ask. Same person the whole way through. And if you'd rather stop after we talk, that's the end of it. Nothing gets written.
The words come first, then the song

The lyrics get drafted from your story, with AI helping and a person steering, and sent to you before anything else happens. Read them, push back, ask for changes. Once you've approved every line, Suno produces the recording from those exact words. Words first, always.
You decide who hears it

Two ways it ends, and both are good. Keep it private, and the song comes to you as an MP3, yours alone, never published. Or let it go public, and it's released under Phantom Soldier on the streaming platforms with a permanent home on this site. Either way, your name isn't on it.

One thing to know going in: not every story becomes a song. That's about pace, not quality. This grows slowly on purpose, and the publishing call stays with us.

What makes a story easy to write from

You don't have to write well. That part is on us. What helps is detail, the small specific things that make a moment real instead of general.

One moment beats a whole deployment. The hour, the conversation, the drive back.
If the song is for somebody, tell us who they were. A lot of these stories belong to someone who isn't here anymore.
Include the thing that stuck. A smell, a song on the radio, a phrase somebody used. That's usually where the song is hiding.
It doesn't have to be combat. Most of the stories that come in aren't, and that's typical. Coming home is a story. So is a good chief, a bad year, or the day you took the uniform off for the last time. Sometimes the weight a thing left on you is the whole story.

Two hard limits: nothing classified, and no details that identify someone who hasn't agreed to be in it. Not sure if something crosses a line? Leave it out and say so. We'll write around the gap.

Your story stays yours

Sending a story is not signing it away. Plainly:

Nothing is published without your yes. You approve the words before recording and the final song before release.
You can keep the song entirely private. We send you the MP3 and it never gets published.
Every song that does go public is released under one name, Phantom Soldier. No veteran's name is ever attached.
You can stop the whole thing at any point before release, no reason required. After release, say the word and the song comes off this site and gets pulled from the platforms as fast as they allow.
Your contact information is never published or sold. It's used to reach you about your story, nothing else.

This is a plain description of how the project operates, written so it can actually be read. It is not legal advice and it is not a contract.

Intake

Send your story.

Two fields are required: an email so we can reach you, and the story itself. Everything else is optional.

Leave this empty

Your email *

Your name Optional. Just so we know who we're talking to. Your name never goes on a published song.

Branch of service

Years or era of service However you'd say it — "OIF, 04–06" is fine.

If it becomes a song

Your story * Write it however it comes out. It does not need to be organized or finished.

Who is this for? Optional. A person, a unit, a family — and what you'd want said about them.

A line or phrase you want in it Optional. Something that was actually said, or a phrase you can't shake.

I'm sending this so it can be considered for a song. I understand not every story becomes one, that nothing gets recorded or released until I've seen it and said yes, and that I can stop it at any point before release. *

This contains nothing classified, and no details that identify someone who hasn't agreed to be in it. *

Rather not use a form? Email it to Project.Veteran.Overwatch@gmail.com.

Received

It came through. Thank you.

Your story is in. You'll get a reply at the email you gave, usually within a few days. Nothing happens with it until we've talked it through, and nothing gets recorded or released until you've read every word and said yes.

That took something to send. Take the rest of the day easy.

If today got heavy

Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1

Text 838255. In an emergency, call 911.

Free, confidential, and staffed 24/7 — for veterans, service members, and their families. You do not need to be enrolled in VA care to use it.

Support

If you need someone right now.

Crisis resources

Veterans Crisis Line — dial 988, then press 1

Text 838255. In an emergency, call 911.

Free, confidential, and staffed 24/7 — for veterans, service members, and their families. You do not need to be enrolled in VA care to use it.

This project is a place for stories, not a place for care. Nobody here is a doctor or a counselor, and nothing on this site is medical, legal, or clinical advice. If a story is sitting on you harder than you expected, the line above is the right call. It's a call a lot of us have made.

The Oath

Every branch has its own creed. The oath is the one thing all of us said, word for word, hand raised.

I, _______, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.