Why we started
In the summer of 2009 I was an infantry platoon leader in Iraq. In a span of 60 days, my West Point class lost three of our own: Sal Corma and Chris Goeke in Afghanistan, and Rob Collins in Iraq.
I wanted to wear a memorial for them. The only ones I could find were sold by for-profit apparel companies. So I asked a simple question: why don't we make our own bracelets and give them to the families?
It didn't go anywhere then. But it stayed with me.
In 2014, my wife Lindsey and I started the Steel Hearts Foundation. We began with memorial bracelets for fallen West Point graduates. Soon we were making them for every service academy, then for all fallen service members and first responders.