The original campaign named #22KILL was created by an OEF Marine veteran named Andrew K. Nguyen, founder of multiple veteran organizations—22KILL, HCC, White Star Families of America, and veteran.Me. The "Pushup Challenge" had first started in 2011 through the veteran nonprofit organization Honor Courage Commitment, Inc., but later continued to evolve while maintaining the foundation to honor military veterans and their service. In early 2013, the VA released a statistic that 22 veterans commit suicide every day on average which initially garnered limited media coverage.