We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kevin W. Hertell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kevin W. , thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Our mission is to break the stigma of mental health, suicide, and seeking treatment within our warrior culture to facilitate suicide prevention for our Veterans & Military. There are tremendous mental health resources available regarding suicide prevention, however these resources are vastly underutilized because of the stigma that’s associated with seeking help, or even just openly talking about mental health or suicide. This is why our mission is to break that stigma, ultimately to save the lives of our nation’s warriors and defenders.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We are a small grassroots organization, made up of all volunteers who do not receive pay; and we are a federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit that serves Veterans, Military, and their families regarding suicide prevention. Our official name is, “The Veterans Suicide Awareness & Remembrance Flag Corporation,” but we call ourselves the S.A.R. Flag Family. Please visit sarflag.org to learn more or support us as we fight to end Veteran/Military suicide.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2016, our Founder lost his cousin to suicide, Senior Airman Robert Dean, U.S. Air Force. It was at that time he became painfully aware of the 22 Veterans and Military who die by suicide each day in our country. 3 years later, he created the Suicide Awareness & Remembrnace Flag and founded the S.A.R Flag Family. Kevin has dedicated his life to breaking the stigma, to facilitate suicide prevention for our Veterans and Military.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

Our SAR Flags, and support merch is made in America by businesses that employ, or support our Veterans and Military.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sarflag.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sar_honorthefallen?igsh=MTJyamN3djF2Njk3aQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1BMHZtoBzr/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sarflag?si=bg221eEl6aY1MvDX

Image Credits

Images are of our volunteers and supporters. We own all images.