Sarge A.I.
A phone line for veteran service organizations. Answers around the clock, and gets the message to a real person the same minute.
The phone rings whether or not anybody can get to it.
That is not a failure of anyone’s effort. It is what happens when a handful of people do the work of an office.
An estimated 30% of American Legion posts operate without a dedicated brick and mortar — roughly 3,900 posts nationwide. And a post with a building still needs somebody sitting in it. The same is true of a VFW post, an Auxiliary unit, a squadron, a detachment. Calls go to voicemail — nights, weekends, working hours, holidays — and get returned whenever somebody has an opportunity to call back.
Sarge is an assistant who answers that line around the clock and knows the organization — where you meet, when, who to talk to, what’s coming up, and who helps a veteran who needs something. She writes down what a caller tells her and it gets to a person. And she is on the line at three in the morning on Christmas.
What changes
- Every call is answered on the first ring, including the ones at two in the morning.
- Nothing waits for somebody’s free evening. A message reaches a real person the same minute.
- The volunteer who carries the phone gets to put it down.
What she does · and what she does not
She does
- Answers on the first ring, day or night, holidays included.
- Keeps a weekly get-together and a monthly business meeting separate, without blending them.
- Gives directions, dues, officers, hours, address.
- Tells callers what’s coming up.
- Points a veteran with a need to the right organization — claims, housing, food, a ride to the VA.
- Recommends somewhere to eat, drink or stay in town.
- Takes a name and number to a real person, the same minute.
- Keeps a full written record of every call, both sides, for an officer to read.
She does not
- Guess. If she doesn’t have it, she says so and takes a message.
- Invent an event, a person, or a phone number.
- Speak an event whose date has passed.
- Read out an email address or a website on the phone.
- Pretend to be a person. She says she’s an AI up front.
- Hang up on somebody who is upset.
- Replace anyone. Every post still has the people it had.
- Cost you your number. Your line stays yours.
How a call actually goes
She picks up, says who she is and that she’s an AI, and asks what the caller needs. Most calls are ordinary and take a minute or two — when do you meet, how do I join, where are you. If she can answer it, she does. If she can’t, she takes a name and a number and sends it to a real person right away.
She is deliberately designed to handle any conversation, including a difficult one. Sarge A.I. is built on the VA’s S.A.V.E. training and on Mental Health First Aid principles. If a caller is in real difficulty she does not improvise: she follows an approved protocol, word for word, stays on the line, and gets a person at the post told within about two minutes.
That protocol was reviewed and approved by a peer support specialist with the Staff Sergeant Fox Suicide Prevention Program. Call the demonstration line and ask her what her crisis handling is built on — she will tell you herself.
What’s being built next
Answering the phone is half the job. The other half is the one nobody wants — calling every member before every event.
- Event reminders, including the ones that repeat — third Thursday, six o’clock, every month.
- Dues renewal reminders, ahead of the deadline rather than after it.
- Membership engagement — the calls that keep people showing up, and that notice when somebody stops.
- By voice or text, whichever a member prefers, and only for members who have opted in.
This is in development, not live today. We would rather build it around what organizations actually need than guess — so tell us what yours would use it for.
Where it stands today
American Legion Post 171, Crystal Lake, Illinois is live. Their board reviewed it, questioned it hard — including a member who ran 9-1-1 communications for both Chicago and New York City — and approved it unanimously. Their line has been answering real callers since late August.
Post 171 is the pilot, and it is the only post live today. Sarge was demonstrated at the American Legion National Convention in Louisville at the end of August, and posts in Illinois, Arkansas, Florida and Texas have asked about it since. This month those conversations opened past the Legion, into the VFW and the Marine Corps League.
What it takes to start
- Tell us the basics once — where you meet, when, who takes messages, who to notify if a call is serious.
- Point your existing number at Sarge. Nothing to install, no equipment, no computer on site.
- Hear her answer with your own information before a single real caller does.
Cost depends on how you come in — one post at a time is priced differently from a district arriving together. Happy to walk through it whenever you want.
Why we’re doing it
Posts get called about all of it — somewhere to live, a vehicle that won’t start, a utility bill, survivors’ benefits. Sarge A.I. exists so those calls reach somebody.
The majority of what an organization pays goes back out: to veteran homelessness prevention and intervention, to developing the resources veterans actually need, to recreational programs most veterans cannot otherwise reach on cost or availability — and to keeping organizational programs funded, from Boys State to community programs to recreational therapy.
That commitment came before the first line of code, and it is not a marketing line.
Now make the call
Everything above is a description. This is the thing itself, answering the way she answers a post’s line at two in the morning. Ask her anything, including what her crisis handling is built on.
support@allenginesstudio.com
SSG Fox Suicide Prevention Program · Veterans Path to Hope
jderon@vphope.org
Road Home Program — The National Center of Excellence for Veterans and Their Families at Rush
312.563.0013 · Mathius_L_Carter@rush.edu