These are the kind of dramatic and heartbreaking stories the Folds of Honor Foundation addresses regularly: The year was 2006, and Air Force Lt. Col. Dan Rooney was on a commercial flight similar to many others he had taken before. As an F-16 pilot, he was returning home from his second tour of duty in Iraq and looked forward to spending time with his family. Then, everything changed.
On that fateful flight, Rooney witnessed the flag-draped coffin of a fallen soldier returning home for his final time. Rooney observed as Corporal Brock Bucklin’s twin brother walked somberly alongside the flag-covered casket to meet his family on the tarmac. Among them was the deceased Corporal’s young son, Jacob.
Rooney’s first thought was to wonder how Jacob, with his father gone, would be able to afford an education. He immediately decided to ensure that the young man had the funds he needed for college. That day, Folds of Honor (FOH) was conceived.
In The Fold
Since 2007, the Folds of Honor Foundation has provided life-changing scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen or disabled military. More recently, FOH expanded its mission to serve the families of America’s first responders.
Col. Nick Nichols is a retired third-generation fighter pilot with seven combat deployments to his credit and has first-hand experience at losing a military parent when his family got that knock on the door when he was 15. FOH president since 2018, Nichols still remembers how difficult it was for him to work his way through college, balancing school work with a 40-hour-a-week loading dock job.
“School has gotten so expensive, there’s no way kids could do that now,” Nichols said in an exclusive interview with Hook & Barrel magazine. “When you look at education, it’s analogous to teaching somebody to fish as opposed to feeding them fish. Our goal is not to give these families a handout, it’s a hand up. It’s a thank you for the service and sacrifice of their military member or first responder. And education is a great path to creating an avenue to be successful in life.”
Nichols is quick to mention that the scholarships Folds of Honor awards, both for children and spouses of fallen heroes, are not only for those wanting to go to college.
“We support trade schools, certificate programs and anything that a kid wants to do or a spouse wants to do,” he said. “We’re here for them. And if you were to talk to our recipients, they would tell you how thankful they are for the educational support.”
Since FOH’s inception, it has awarded nearly 62,000 scholarships to family members of fallen or disabled heroes.
How Folds of Honor Raises Money
Funding thousands of scholarships a year costs a lot of money. Consequently, Folds of Honor has many ways to raise revenue to help families of fallen or disabled heroes. FOH has about 40 regional chapters throughout the U.S. raising money in several different ways, including many golf outings that benefit the foundation. Additionally, several large corporations — Anheuser-Busch, Delta, Yeti and others — also provide high-level funding.
While these big corporate donors are critical to success, Nichols said individual Americans who choose to pay $13 a month to become a FOH “wingman” make a tremendous difference in the number of surviving family members the foundation can help.
“Some of your readers might ask, ‘Why number 13?’ And if you look at our logo, you see that folded flag,” Nichols said. “It takes exactly 13 folds to bring it to that iconic triangle shape of freedom.
“A lot of people think, ‘Well, it’s just $13 a month.’ But if you think about it, you know, you get a million people giving you $13 a month, that’s significant. And, it’s a price point where everybody can come in. When you look at the Folds of Honor Foundation, we are a foundation for everyone. Whatever price point you want to come in at and support us, every dollar matters.”
Unfortunately, despite all the hard work Folds of Honor is doing to help families of fallen or disabled heroes, demand for scholarships is far outpacing the number the organization can give each year.
“Last year alone, we provided 10,000 what we call ‘full scholarships,’ which are $5,000,” Nichols said. “But there were also 7,000 qualified applicants that we could not fully fund.
“We just closed our application window at the beginning of April, and we’re looking at 22,000 qualified applicants. So, there’s a lot that needs to be done.”
Beyond The Diplomas
Nichols stated that while the funding for sending children and spouses to school is very important, those receiving the scholarships will testify that there’s an even more significant aspect to the Folds of Honor awards.
“They will sit there and tell you that, yes, that money is amazing, yes, we wouldn’t be able to go to school without it,” Nichols said. “But what is most important to them is that they’re seen and heard, and nobody forgot about them. You know, in this life, when we can get so caught up in ourselves, to sit down for a second and really listen to these families, that means more to them than any dollar figure.”
“They’re the ones that tend to kind of get left behind. There’s all the pomp and circumstance around everything when someone is drastically injured or, heaven forbid, they’re killed. But the military is only there for so long. They have to get about their business. Two to three months down the road, the house gets quiet, and families are kind of left to their own. We want to make sure that these families feel seen, that they feel heard, that their loved one’s memory will live in perpetuity.”
Folds That Forge
Ultimately, Nichols said that in our divided country today, his organization and others that are working to help wounded heroes and their families are doing the one thing that unites us all.
“If you look at our pillars, they’re honor, educate and unite,” he said. “Do you know what an amazing unity message it is to look at the families that we support? You’re talking about the military, those who defend our country, and our first responders who respond to over 240 million 911 calls a year. We don’t do anything in this country in the absence of freedom and safety—and that is a message that everybody can get behind.
“What we like to say here is we’re never a red issue or a blue issue. This is a red, white and blue issue. We’re all Americans, and we can get behind this one cause.”
To learn more about all the great work the Folds of Honor Foundation does, visit foldsofhonor.org.
Folds of Honor: By The Numbers
2007: Year FOH was launched
62,000: Number of education scholarships awarded
45: Percent of scholarships awarded to minority recipients
91: Percentage of annual expenses that go to scholarships
High-Profile FOH Supporters
Many professional athletes and performers lend their voices (and financial support) to raise awareness to Americans who want to support FOH’s efforts. Here are a few notable musical artists that deserve a H&B hat tip: Dierks Bentley, Lee Brice, Jordan Davis, Jelly Roll and Zach Bryan.
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