Two and a half years ago, Air Force veteran Steve Sirois opened his business, Callsign Brewing, to honor veterans and share their stories with the public. Opening his own business was an unexpected dream beginning with a Father’s Day present, a 1-gallon William-Sonoma home brewing kit.
“That made me catch the bug,” said Sirois.
Shortly after, Sirois upgraded his little 1-gallon homebrew kit to a 5-gallon homebrew system. With the help of his good friend, Morris Loncon whom he met at McConnell Air Force Base during their service there, he learned the basics of brewing craft beer from his garage. The more he brewed, the bigger he dreamed.
“Deep down in him he’s got an entrepreneurial spirit,” said John Stansfield, another close service friend of Sirois.
The mission for Callsign Brewing began in 2015 when Sirois and Loncon brewed a batch of beer for The Zona Rosa Beer Festival in Kansas City, Missouri. The annual festival invites both homebrewers and pro brewers to bring their best beers for tasting.
“Morris and I couldn’t think of any clever garage brew names, so during that first beer that we were brewing, Morris and I started talking about those in the military that we’ve lost,” said Sirois. “Halfway through that conversation, Morris goes, “Hey let’s do a tribute for the tanker crew that we lost two years ago in Kyrgyzstan.”
The jet was from McConnell, however, the crew manning the aircraft was from Fairchild Air Force Base. As a remembrance, they named the brew Shell 77 Imperial IPA. In addition to this beer, they had another beer honoring the callsign and crew of the Komodo 11 which crashed in Afghanistan on March 23, 2013.
“Her eyes got big and she literally started crying and she goes “Oh my God, that’s Jason’s helicopter, that was his callsign,” said Sirois. “At the bottom of the labels at the time were names of those that perished and she goes “Oh my God, there’s Jason’s name.” He was the flight engineer on that helicopter. I said “Ma’am are you Jason Hick’s widow?” and she looks right at me and says “Yes, I am. Did you know him? I said, “Yes ma’am I did know him. I went to flight school with him back in 2000. I did know him.”
She was one of many at the festival having a connection to the callsigns memorialized by the beers. Since then, Sirois has ensured each batch of beer Callsign Brewing makes honors a different fallen Air Force crew. The names of each member of the flight crew are printed on the label of the bottle and each batch is named after the callsign of the fallen aircraft.
“They want to be heard, they want to be talked to, they want to connect the way that [he’s] doing it and it’s effortless for him,” said Loncon.
In addition to honoring those who have lost their lives in service, Callsign Brewing also sponsors service dogs for soldiers with PTSD through their annual service dog fundraiser. Sponsoring a service dog costs $2,500, this money goes towards food, housing, and training for the dog.
“These service dogs are trained to assist in medical crises, provide medical treatment assistance, assisting in coping with emotional overload, and performing security enhancement,” according to Callsign Brewing’s Website.
Last year after their second annual service dog fundraiser, the money Callsign Brewing raised supported four dogs. One man’s service dog transformed his life, the man’s name is William. Six months after receiving his service dog, Sirois ran into him again.
“He looked like a completely different person. He was clean-shaven, he had color back in his face,” said Sirois. “This guy actually looked like he was alive again.”
However, Sirois doesn’t stop there. Helping everyone he meets whether they are a customer at the brewery or a stranger has become his mission.
“He’s kind of a hero in a lot of people’s eyes,” said Loncon. “Just the other night we were there on a regular brew night and one of the wait staff came in, not even her day to work, just came in to tell a story about Veterans Day and what Steve did for Veterans Day. He went to a nursing home and made some really old people who never get heard, they don’t ever get to tell their kind of stories. He sat there and listened to them and told them his story and they connected. That’s the kind of thing Steve does all the time.”
Sirois’s goals include continuing to honor fallen veterans and helping those with post-traumatic stress disorder, but his next major goal for the future is expanding Callsign Brewing through distribution. However, achieving his goals and maintaining them requires an extreme amount of work.
“He is one of the hardest working men I know,” said Stansfield. “A career with the railroad, a second career with the Air Force, and on top of all that he runs his own business which is like having two full-time jobs anyway. I don’t know when the man sleeps.”
In the end, it’s all worth it for Sirois. The three jobs, little free time, and expenses are just part of making a difference in someone’s life and memorializing fallen soldiers.
“The thing that motivates me is seeing people enjoy the beer and also guys like William,” said Sirois. “Running into somebody like him, we turned his life around.
Rebecca Sisler 