Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox came home from war at 25 years old and nobody from the VA found him in time.
He died by suicide in Columbus, Georgia on July 21, 2020 – one of more than 6,000 veterans who die that way every year.
Now the program bearing his name is getting $112 million more, because Trump's VA finally decided to go find the veterans the system has been losing for two decades.
The Number That Should Embarrass Every Politician in Washington
Six thousand veterans die by suicide every year.
That number hasn't changed since 2008.
The federal government spent $588 million on veteran suicide prevention last year alone.
And the VA's own data shows that 61% of veterans who die by suicide had no contact with VA health care in the final year of their lives.
Read that again.
The system wasn't failing veterans who showed up and got bad care.
It was failing the ones who never showed up at all – living in their neighborhoods, carrying their pain – invisible to every program Washington built to save them.
https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/2034722998930772225?s=20
For over a decade, Washington kept pouring money into programs designed for veterans already engaged with the system, and kept losing the ones who weren't.
Biden's VA ran the Staff Sergeant Fox grant program for nearly three years and the suicide rate didn't move.
What Doug Collins Is Doing Differently
VA Secretary Doug Collins is a post-9/11 veteran himself – an Air Force Reserve chaplain confirmed 77-23 by the Senate, with enough bipartisan support that two dozen Democrats voted yes.
He took one look at $588 million in annual spending and a suicide rate frozen since 2008 and said the approach has to change.
"Veteran suicide has been a scourge on our nation for far too long," Collins said.
"Most Veterans who die by suicide were not in recent VA care – so making it easier for those who have worn the uniform to access the VA benefits they have earned is key."
Under Trump, Collins isn't waiting for veterans to walk through a federal door.
He's funding the people already standing next to them.
The $112 million in new grants goes to nonprofits, local governments, tribal communities, and other organizations with a demonstrated record of serving veterans – groups that know which veterans are struggling before those veterans ever think to call a hotline.
https://twitter.com/SecVetAffairs/status/2035423697230524607?s=20
Since the program launched in September 2022, $210 million has gone to 111 organizations across 46 states, territories, and tribal lands.
In 2025 alone, those organizations reached more than 17,000 veterans, service members, and their families – including nearly 9,000 with an elevated risk for suicide.
Of veterans who had never enrolled in VA health care, 42% signed up for the first time after connecting with a grant-funded organization.
A new outreach campaign launched in January 2026 has already brought more than 33,000 previously unenrolled veterans into VA care.
The VA also completed more than 5.3 million suicide risk screenings in 2025 – 200,000 more than the year before.
Eligible organizations have until June 12, 2026 to apply for the new round of grants.
The Government Finally Admitting What Communities Already Knew
Here's what makes this story worth paying attention to.
The VA built crisis lines, clinics, and mental health programs – and the veterans most likely to die never used any of them.
The Staff Sergeant Fox program is the first serious, sustained effort to reach those veterans where they actually are.
Not a hotline they have to call.
Not a clinic they have to drive to.
https://twitter.com/DeptVetAffairs/status/2034320484490215876?s=20
People in their own communities who notice when someone stops showing up – and know what to do next.
More than 80% of participants report meaningful improvements in mental health, financial stability, and social connection after completing the program.
Parker Fox wasn't a casualty at Fort Benning.
He came home, served as a sniper instructor at the Infantry School there, and was known by everyone who met him for his generosity and kindness.
He was 25 years old when he died.
The program named for him exists because Washington failed him.
The least it can do now is make sure it doesn't keep failing the next one.
Sources:
- VA News, "VA releases annual Veteran suicide prevention report, updated with 2023 data," Department of Veterans Affairs, February 2026.
- VA Mental Health, "Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program," Department of Veterans Affairs, March 2026.
- VA News, "Extending VA's reach in preventing veteran suicide," Department of Veterans Affairs, December 2025.
- PBS NewsHour, "VA Secretary Collins testifies on 2026 White House budget request," May 2025.
- VA News, "Secretary Collins' message to Veterans and VA employees," Department of Veterans Affairs, February 2025.
- Be Connected / connectveterans.org, "Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Grant Program," December 2022.
- FOX 10 Phoenix, "VA providing $112M in grants for veteran suicide prevention programs across the country," March 2026.