--- title: Clay Hunt’s Legacy for Veterans description: President Barack Obama is about to sign the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act today. I never met Clay, but I've spent part... canonical: https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-12T18:21:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:21.754Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clay Hunt’s Legacy for Veterans og:description: President Barack Obama is about to sign the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act today. I never met Clay, but I've spent part... og:url: https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clay Hunt’s Legacy for Veterans twitter:description: President Barack Obama is about to sign the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act today. I never met Clay, but I've spent part... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Clay Hunt's Legacy for Veterans ## Video: Know Right Now: Gay Marriage Continues Despite Alabama Judge's Order [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Gay Marriage Continues Despite Alabama Judge's Order](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sIQoOM1I.m3u8) (1:03)  _Published 2015-02-09. Local officials in Alabama began issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, after the state's top judge set up a high-stakes legal showdown_ by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Feb 12, 2015 6:21 PM UTC by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) ## Joe Klein Feb 12, 2015 6:21 PM UTC President Barack Obama is about to sign the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act today. I never met Clay, but I’ve spent part of the past three years living with his memory, talking to his parents and friends, for a book about the Post-9/11 generation that will be published in October. Clay was integral to some of the best veterans organizations out there. He was one of the first members of Team Rubicon, the disaster relief organization co-founded by his best friend, Jake Wood. His work for Team Rubicon was subsidized by a six-month fellowship from The Mission Continues, a brilliant organization that encourages veterans to heal themselves through public service. He was also a spokesman for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. It was IAVA and, especially, its great leader Paul Reickhoff, who led the charge to get this necessary bill funded. It is cause for celebration, I suppose. I wish Clay were here to celebrate…but he does leave a legacy beyond this bill, a spiritual legacy that includes a mission for all of us. He left it in writing. His mom, Susan Selke, passed it along to me–and I’m sure if Clay were here today, this is what he would say: --- > “” --- –Clay Hunt ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/"},"headline":"Clay Hunt's Legacy for Veterans","datePublished":"2015-02-12T18:21:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:21.754Z","description":"President Barack Obama is about to sign the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act today. I never met Clay, but I've spent part...","url":"https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/","keywords":["Joe Klein"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Klein","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/joe-klein/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/","name":"Clay Hunt's Legacy for Veterans"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Gay Marriage Continues Despite Alabama Judge's Order","description":"Local officials in Alabama began issuing marriage licenses for same-sex couples, after the state's top judge set up a high-stakes legal showdown","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sIQoOM1I/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-02-09T17:51:45.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sIQoOM1I.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/","duration":"PT1M3S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3707640/clay-hunts-legacy-for-veterans/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```