Deven Wallace

THE UNIFORM COMES OFF. THE OATH REMAINS.

Somewhere in America, a mother is waiting for a phone call that will never come.

A father is looking at a photograph of the child he once held in his arms.

A spouse is learning how to live in a home that suddenly feels too quiet.

And somewhere, an empty place remains in a military formation where a Soldier once stood.

Behind every uniform is a human being. Behind every rank is a story. Behind every service member is someone who loves them, someone who needs them, and a life that extends far beyond the military.

Those are the lives The Formation Accountability Project exists to honor and protect.

Deven Wallace founded The Formation Accountability Project upon a belief shaped by his service in the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division: the responsibility of leadership does not begin and end with the authority to give orders. It carries an obligation to care for the people entrusted to lead.

Service dates: May 12, 2021 – March 30, 2027

Deven joined the United States Army to fight The Global War on Terrorism.

After the withdrawal from Afghanistan, he carried an emptiness throughout the remainder of his service.

That emptiness led him to a realization: the battle that still needed to be fought was here at home, inside the formation itself — the war on the military's suicide crisis.

One morning made that crisis impossible to ignore.

Deven had just completed a four-mile run for physical training. Making his way up the hill near the Air Assault School, he came upon a scene that stopped him: Military Police squad cars, coroner's vehicles, Army Criminal Investigation Division personnel, and ambulances — all gathered outside a barracks building.

Another Soldier had died by suicide. Another life lost. Another family whose world would never be the same.

He could not say what led that Soldier to take their life, and he will not pretend that suicide can be explained by a single event, a single leader, or a single institutional failure. He did not know the circumstances, and he could not assign blame. But that morning stayed with him.

During his military service, Deven personally became aware of more than three dozen deaths by suicide involving service members.

He carries the lives behind those numbers — the people, the families, the friendships, the futures that would never unfold. And he began asking whether the institution was doing enough to learn from those losses, not simply to document them or respond to them.

Throughout his service, Deven watched commanders post a zero-tolerance approach to suicide on their walls — the same policy, copied and pasted, with only a signature and a date changed when a new commander arrived.

Those very commands would not talk about suicide. Rather than taking a proactive approach to suicide prevention, they were at a strategic disadvantage: forced to be reactive.

Throughout his service, Deven also witnessed the extraordinary strength of Soldiers who endured hardship, carried burdens few outside the formation could understand, and continued showing up for the people standing beside them.

He also came to recognize that some of the most consequential battles a Soldier faces are fought far from any battlefield.

Battles with isolation. With fear. With broken trust. With circumstances that may never appear on a readiness report.

And sometimes, those battles end in a loss that leaves an entire formation searching for answers.

No single experience can explain every tragedy. No law can prevent every loss. And no investigation can bring back a life that has ended.

But those realities do not relieve an institution of its responsibility to ask difficult questions.

Were warning signs recognized? Were credible allegations taken seriously? Were service members protected from unlawful retaliation? Were leaders held accountable when the evidence established wrongdoing? And when something went wrong, did the institution learn from it?

These are not questions asked out of hostility toward the military.

They are questions asked because its people matter.

The Formation Accountability Project was established to examine those questions through rigorous legal research, responsible legislative advocacy, and a commitment to fairness.

Its mission is to strengthen military justice, protect due process, improve independent accountability, and support the trust upon which every military formation depends.

It is not a campaign against commanders.

It is not a presumption that every allegation is true.

And it is not an attempt to assign blame for tragedies whose causes may never be fully understood.

It is a commitment to ensuring that rank never places someone above the law, that an allegation never substitutes for proof, and that the dignity of those who serve is never treated as expendable.

This work is for the Soldier who is afraid to speak.

For the noncommissioned officer who believes leadership means protecting people, even when doing so is difficult.

For the commander who understands that authority is inseparable from responsibility.

For the family carrying a loss that the rest of the world may never fully comprehend.

And for the service members who will one day raise their right hands and place their trust in an institution greater than themselves.

Deven's role is simply to help carry this mission forward.

Because the measure of this project will never be the recognition of its founder.

It will be whether its research contributes to meaningful improvements in military justice, whether its advocacy encourages difficult but necessary conversations, and whether the people entrusted to defend this nation are treated with the dignity, fairness, and accountability their service deserves.

FOR THOSE WE HAVE LOST.

FOR THOSE STILL STANDING IN FORMATION.

FOR THOSE WHO HAVE YET TO RAISE THEIR RIGHT HAND.

There are Soldiers whose names will never appear in a history book.

There are families whose sacrifices will never make the evening news.

And there are empty places in formations across this country that no promotion, award, or ceremony can ever fill.

Their lives mattered before they wore the uniform.

Their lives mattered while they served.

And their lives must continue to matter to the institution they served.

The uniform may come off.

The formations may change.

The years may pass.

But the oath remains.

And so does the responsibility to those who stood beside us.

Deven Wallace
Founder, The Formation Accountability Project

THE MISSION DOESN'T END WHEN THE UNIFORM COMES OFF.