Tell your story

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

Leave this empty

Your email *

Your story * Write it however it comes out. One moment beats a whole deployment: the hour, the conversation, the drive back. It doesn't have to be combat, and it doesn't need to be finished.

Add more about you or the story (optional)

Your name 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 to 06" is fine.

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

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

I'm sending this to be used in a song. I understand that not every story becomes one, that it may be woven together with other veterans' stories, that I'll see the words before anything is recorded, and that no names or identifying details will be published. *

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.

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 until you've seen the words.

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

If today got heavy: dial 988, then press 1.

Veterans Crisis Line. Text 838255. In an emergency, call 911.

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

What makes a story easy to write from

You don't have to write well. That part is on us. What helps is detail.

One moment beats a whole deployment. The hour, the conversation, the drive back.
If the song is for somebody, tell us who they were.
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. 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.

What happens to it

You see the words before anything is recorded.
It may be woven together with another veteran's story so it reaches more of us.
No veteran's name is ever attached to a published song.
Until the words are final, you can pull it back, no reason required.

Two hard limits: nothing classified, and nothing that identifies someone who hasn't agreed to be in it. Not sure? Leave it out and say so. The rest of the fine print