TF108 | Big Sky, MT
A NOTE FROM THE TASK FORCE DIRECTOR…
BSB Supporters-
As I think back to my first task force, TF8, to my most recent one, TF108, a lot has changed in 100 task forces in between. One thing that has not changed though, is the quality of operators that come through our doors. This week we had three different organizations represented, two of which I had never worked with before. I mention this because it is a sign of BSB being able to increase our reach to help more people across the broader SOF community.
The timing of bringing these men in particular could not have been better. We honored those they’ve lost throughout the week in the best ways we knew how.
Although Big Sky has had a light year of snow we still skied hard for three days and found plenty of fun terrain to ski. Lots of laughs were had as we all took spills trying to push it beyond our limits. We were able to get a great team picture at top of the Lone Peak Tram as well. Snowmobile day is always amazing and our great guides, Mark and Trae, were able to get us into silly deep powder. I could hear laughter all throughout the canyon as guys were continuously gunning it, getting stuck and having to dig each other out. We had a great fireside lunch break as well.
Lone Mountain Ranch was the perfect setting for getting us all together to enjoy incredible meals and have great conversations. As usual, we were able to unload the pressure of life’s daily struggles and share our stories. This group was unusually quick to bond together. By the end of the first night it was clear we were going to have an incredible week and allow for some decompression and relief.
I can’t say thank you enough to Paul Makarechian for generosity that I have rarely seen. Not only did he serve as a volunteer throughout the week but he allowed us to stay at the amazing Lone Mountain Ranch and provided what can only be described as the best meals of all our lives, and that is not an exaggeration. It’s rare when someone donates time, money and resources all in the same week but Paul did just that. I’m confident that TF108 will remain in close contact for a very long time.
For those headed back out into the fight, I will leave you with a prayer that Dave Baringer, a former operator and now TF volunteer, said before all of his missions: “Dear lord, allow me to be fast and accurate. Make my enemies slow and ineffective. Amen.”
God bless you all,
Austin McPherson
Task Force 108 Director
VOLUNTEERS TO THANK
Austin McPherson [Task Force Director]
Paul Makarechian
Dave Baringer
Dusty Dawes
PATRIOTS TO THANK
Paul Makarechian & Lone Mountain Ranch [Lodging & food]
Canyon Adventures [Snowmobiles, guides - Trae & Mark, & lunch]
Peak Skis [Ski rentals]
Big Sky Resort [Discounted & donated lift tickets]
Jim Mikulich [Discounted ski instruction]
Big Sky Natural Health [Discounted IV Therapy]
Melissa Culver [Chocolate chip cookies]
ANTHEM Snacks & Wild Society Coffee [Welcome bag donation items]
“From when I was initially told I was selected to attend BSB I was excited to experience the program I heard so much about and what it provided colleagues who have been . The volunteer staff was amazing with communication and interpersonal relationships. From Arrival to Departure, we were treated so well and over the course of 5 days , the lessons we discussed enabled self grown and through shared understanding, really help me find who I am and help guide me who I want to be.
The BSB experience as a whole was a godsend and a thoroughly once in a lifetime opportunity.
It’s designed to bring all members of the SOF community together, not to brag or flex but to show the commonality in stressors we face and how to aid in navigating them. Attending Big Sky Bravery has enabled me to continue my military career and I look forward to it.
Thank you, BSB, for helping me find myself.
R.”
“To the gracious Big Sky Bravery family,
First and foremost, thank you! I cannot fully express the extent of my gratitude to the BSB crew. Truly a fantastic experience. Members of my organization have attended BSB events for as long as I have been here (7-years) and I have heard numerous teammates voice strong support for the program.
I have long awaited an opportunity to share in this experience.
TF 108 far surpassed my expectations. I want to highlight two aspects of this program that I most value.
The volunteers. I applaud the selection process for BSB volunteers and am grateful for the lasting relationships. Austin, Paul, Dusty, and Dave served as an ideal mix of individuals -- each adding unique value to my life. I loved spending time with patriotic men of character, three of whom had never served in the military. I viewed the love and expressions of gratitude I received from each of the volunteers as an extension of the larger BSB family. I am often thanked for my service, but very rarely does that go beyond half-off a Chili’s appetizer. Many of us are isolated to our military and personal families with minimal meaningful connection outside of school-age friends to the civilian population.
I loved seeing, hearing, and feeling the powerful support and gratitude of our non-military brethren through our TF’s volunteers. I remain proud to be an American and proud to fight for our country. Thank you.
The atmosphere. The accommodation, food, drinks, gift bags, flights, and treatment were top-notch! The daily opportunities to explore Big Sky via ski and snowmobile were unmatched. Nature soothes the soul! However, my favorite aspect of this trip was the post-activity family-like atmosphere leading to the conversation of consequence each night.
I am challenged to be a better husband, father, leader, and citizen following this week. Thank you.
I am humbled and grateful for the time, effort, and resources put into these programs. I am proud to be a member of the BSB alumni family.
I am recharged and inspired for the fights yet to come.
Thank you.
S.”
“First of all, I must begin by saying THANK YOU, BSB! I had a life-changing and remarkable experience. From the first emails to the pickup at the airport, to the gear check out and on through the rest of the week, I felt an overwhelming encounter with the sincerest gratitude and care I have ever experienced from total strangers (or at all for that matter). I was telling the amazing volunteers that partnered with TF 108 that up till now, the most I think I have ever received was a “thank you for your service” at the checkout or in the elevator. And over the years I have found I am most comfortable saying a simple, “it’s my pleasure.” And it truly has been. I think I may speak for more than myself when I reminisce and say that when most people in the SOF community join, they don’t do it to be thanked for it later. It’s a compelling call for a multitude of motives. What keeps us in and our families going? I don’t know, I truly don’t—perhaps sheer stubbornness. But when the events of last week’s TF began to unfold, I found myself face-to-face with the most heartfelt gratitude at every turn. It was gratitude I don’t think I have ever quite faced before. Your organization and volunteers wrapped us up in a hearty family hug for a week and I am eternally grateful in return. I mentioned ‘care’ as well, and I mean that one especially. If gratitude was the heart, then care was the hand. We all can appreciate the finer details. And most fellas in this community live or die by them. But when someone goes to the ‘n’th degree to care for the finer details, for us, it’s like a foghorn speaking our love language.
Y’all did that for us this week: cared for our physical, mental, and spiritual needs in over-abundance.
It will be in these three very cliché categories that I would like to take a moment of your time to express my thanks.
Physical. BSB clearly ‘gets’ SOF—we like to work. Often times work and play blur and we get confused as to which one we were doing. Montana does the same thing, I believe. Its nature does not allow for timid play. It is engaging in such a magical way that it lulls you into forgetting how exhausting your day might have been. So much of my life has been punctuated by exertion; but exertion where I was seldom alone. BSB tapped into that as well, by emphasizing that the group stay together. A group pushes the lowest common denominator and tempers the highest ‘un’-common denominator. Thank you for encouraging that and in-so-doing making us feel at home. Furthermore, I cannot leave this topic without commenting on the backdrop—Big Sky. Thank you for bringing us out to a breathtaking place. Many times, throughout the week, I would look up (or be reminded by a volunteer) to see a view that stopped time; erased worry; eroded stress; transported.
Perhaps those moments were more powerful as well because I knew I wasn’t there for work, but because someone was caring for me, was giving this to me- from a place of real sincere gratitude.
Additionally, the food and drink were off the charts! The lodging was incomprehensible. SUSTAIN. BSB, Lone Mountain Ranch and Paul M. unlocked the 11th level of generosity on a dial that goes to 10. I have never been so wined and dined. At every turn, y’all cared for our needs and spoiled us rotten. I just have no words on this point. '
I kept thinking, I am so not worthy of this. It was a dream I kept not wanting to wake up from.
Mental. The stillness of the last week was contrasted by the speed at which it went by. We did accomplish a lot each day, and yet I still felt a legitimate ‘break’ for my mind. The other guys in the group were all swearing off the “crack-berries” and work emails and forcing themselves to just be ‘present’. Drinking in the panorama and decompressing with each other over several days of meals, walks, chairlift rides, ski-runs, etc. was rejuvenating and recharging. I’ll even pause here to bring up the mental challenge BSB adds into each day with their very difficult and heavy “question of the day.” I’m convinced this is a genius two-edged sword. First, these questions forced me to think about something that wasn’t work-related or home-related or ‘normal worries’ related. They occupied my mind enough during the day to push out the normal noise and make me dwell on one thing. Second, they helped bond our group at a much faster pace than is normal. For someone who is notoriously near-sighted and can’t plan 6 months in the future, I needed to answer several of the questions and be sharpened by others doing the same. I recall a moment on the sleigh ride to dinner Monday night. As the perfume of horse manure wafted past and the crisp cold of the night lingered, I was looking up through the canopy of trees to see the sky just going dark, thinking about the amazing conversation that we all had in the cabin before embarking on a dinner experience I could never have imagined at Lone Mtn Ranch.
The mental needs are often heavy, and y’all made them light.
BSB, thank you for creating the space to do that.
Spiritual. Here was the life-changing part for me. Hands down my favorite part of my BSB experience. And if this paragraph isn’t the longest part of this letter, it’s because I just can’t do it justice with words. The people involved in BSB—volunteers, donors, participants—are my favorite people (outside my own blood). BSB, you MUST curate your volunteers with a wand or a wizard staff. I don’t know where you find them, but they are gold. Let me go out on a limb and say that SOF people can become rather unfriendly and caught up in stigma, social barriers, high expectations, a pseudo ‘un-relatable-ness unless you have been through the same things or are from the same clan or have the same patch—“ego” to say the least. Some make you feel like family, embracing the warrior brotherhood ethos, others make you wonder if they even want to breathe the same air. And BSB sliced through it all like a hot knife through butter. I don’t think a ‘butt-sniffing phase’ even registered with me. Y’all brought amazing humans into the room, and they anchored us back into reality—instantly. Austin McPhersan, Dusty Daws, Paul Makarechian, Dave Baringer are each in their own right pure platinum. I was blessed each day with their wisdom and insights, similarities, desires, and generosity. I mean, I owe each them a thank you letter at the least. BSB, I cannot overstate enough how much I loved gaining them as friends. They winsomely escorted we participants into a sense of complete safety, transparency, and genuineness that the connection with each other (all 10 of us) became REAL and fast.
This group helped breathe the humanity of all our shared experiences back into the room.
I will treasure each of these men and their families for the rest of my life. I am so much richer knowing them. To pick just one example, out of many, to capture how the diversity of the group and each individual’s high caliber impacted me was how quickly we zeroed in on identity. They each pooled together a slosh pot of understanding how often we in SOF (but not just in SOF) are unbalanced, inverted even. Job rules, dictates and drives the life…and the life supports the job. Verses the healthier alternative, where the job supports and fuels the life. Where the ‘sum-life’ is the soul or identity, not the career or job. Husband, father, friend, SOF guy, duty, whatever—work, personal, family—it all gets jumbled and out of balance for everyone. And we each need to fight for balance instead of surrendering to a meat grinder that will mess all the areas up. Identity out of whack or self-focus will poison the whole well. I think this was a snip of the first-day discussion! Wonderful, unbelievable, generous, ‘the best’ people. Thank you for the gift of connecting me to amazing volunteers and reconnecting me to the outstanding men I share the uniform with, BSB. My heart is glad.
Closing out this extremely long-winded letter (which is still barely scratching the surface of what I could share), I must commend BSB on their talent at weaving and blending all these monumental pillars of all our lives—physical, mental, spiritual—into a damn fine balance that left me feeling blessed beyond measure and revived. This jam-packed week deposited so much in my heart—not just new friends but family; not just memorable experiences but precious memories; not just joviality and generosity but soul and sincerity.
Truly BSB is a gift that keeps giving.
“Give more than you take” is a motto that anyone could tip their hat to, but after living this week with y’all, it is enough to bring tears. It has weight. BSB, you live your motto out phenomenally well and you not only honor we who partake but you humble and inspire us to do the same. Towards this juncture in my life, ‘burnout’ is one of those dirty words in the back of my mind that finds voice when I’m talking to my wife or thinking about how much longer we can or should do this job.
BSB has given me a reminder of the soul of why we are serving.
I mean that. Your volunteers and the fellas I got to know last week have completely re-grounded some of those motivations for serving that can at times get hard to define. It’s real good. I want more of it. More than that, (and I was careful to share this with the volunteers) but I want this kind of wholistic experience for my wife and family. They sacrifice so much, and I am indebted to them. Sprinkle some of this BSB fairy dust on them, please! Everybody needs them some BSB! What you are doing is pure genius magic. Please keep it up. It is changing lives. BSB and all who donate your time and money, you have all the gratitude I can muster. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Sincerely,
A.”
“Bottom Line: This was the best experience I have had that is both work related and not related at the same time. I believe it gave me the gas to continue mission.
Every day closed with a question that we all thought about during the day. These were my favorite times as it provided gravity, levity, and perspective. The group being composed of different organizations and backgrounds while still being like-minded gave me the confidence to disclose my thoughts and trust that everyone would listen and respond honestly. We executed skiing and sledding during the day, built shared experiences, and it helped bridge the gap of talking about work and personal life in the evening. This is an excellent formula and cannot be touted on enough. I appreciate the talks I had with Dusty, he is an awesome dude. All of the volunteers are awesome and everyone has something special that made the whole event one of a kind. I couldn’t imagine it without the same people. Thank you for the opportunity to experience this.
A teammate told me I had to go to this, and I shrugged it off focused on work. I know now what he meant and I wish I would have taken the time to talk to him more about it.
I just want to say thank you again to Austin, Paul, Dave, and Dusty.
Very Respectfully,
Z.”
“I can’t say enough about the positive impact of Big Sky Bravery on the members of the SOF community that have been blessed enough to participate. Attending a Task Force has truly been a life-giving experience.
Being served, cared for, and appreciated in ways that are so extremely special and uncommon re-opened my eyes to the reality that there is a powerful human element within our country that remains passionately patriotic and morally dedicated to the greater good.
Being offered the opportunity to see and experience a taste of this through Big Sky Bravery has provided me with a renewed energy and a sense of purpose in the service of my family, community, and country.
To the donors, volunteers, and BSB leadership that dedicate their precious resources, time, and passion to serving those that serve, please accept a heartfelt and sincere thank you.
As much as our nation has a continued need for special operations forces willing to do extraordinary things in defense of our nation and way of life, we have an equally great need for business leaders, entrepreneurs, public servants, and private citizens who are willing to maintain and strengthen the moral and ethical backbone that supports our society.
Big Sky Bravery has highlighted that truth to me and I am infinitely grateful.
T.”
“First and foremost, I can’t say enough how grateful I am that I got to experience what can only be referred to as “magic”.
I have been wearing the uniform for over 22 years now. I have had people thank me for my service, buy me a beer, and take me hunting. But I have never had anyone, (or an organization for that matter), make me feel the way I did during our week in Montana.
In SOF, we talk a lot about “taking a knee”, getting “reset”, and the importance of self-care and rest; while I think I have somewhat accomplished this in bite-sized pieces throughout my career, the magic of BSB and the week of activities did all of this and more. It gave me a new perspective in my personal/work life and also helped me understand my individual strengths and weaknesses in ways that I was never really able to fully grasp before.
From our first zoom call, to our final goodbyes, I felt connected, loved, cared for, motivated, refreshed, and most importantly I felt special. It made the trauma, the loss, the constant deployments, TDY’s, time away from family, hardships, and everything in between, finally feel like it was and is worth it.
I’d argue that it reinvigorated my service, but most importantly helped me to identify areas in my life that I can do better, specifically within my family, and armed me with better coping mechanisms and plans moving forward to more realistically achieve the inevitable work-life-balance. This wasn’t achieved by any structured class, PowerPoint, or laying on a couch during a formal therapy session. Instead it was achieved through the “therapy” of daily activities and during nightly discussions (potentially fueled by Angel’s Envy….) amongst our TF, where we rolled our sleeves up, provided honest feedback to each other, and opened our hearts to our brothers by having difficult, candid, honest and necessary discussions. Trust and respect shared between brothers from similar communities and backgrounds that enabled us to challenge each other and provide outside perspectives to do better, and “give more than you take”.
One of the greatest things about the trip was the variety of people. In the SOF community, we are a very tight family. We serve together, spend time with each other’s families, and throughout the year literally live with one another. There’s a ton of goodness in this, and this is what makes SOF special. However, we tend to share similar views, values, and outlooks within our individual tribes. So when it comes to mentorship and making ourselves better, the advice we oftentimes give to our brothers tends to be “group think” and quite honestly can be jaded. Having strong, successful, charismatic men who are driven by similar values and ethos like Paul, Dusty, Austin, and Dave, with different backgrounds, made the daily interactions and, more specifically, the nightly discussions incredible and in my opinion, one of the best parts about the trip.
People- I don’t know your vetting process or how you find your people. But keep doing what you’re doing. Literally when I met the team I felt like I knew them my entire life. There was an instant connection and an immediate brotherhood was formed amongst our TF. There’s something special about the TF’s. You don’t just show up for a week, do cool shit, then go back home. Relationships, friendships, and a brotherhood are formed and I am confident our group will be life-long friends (even to this day we have daily exchanges on our signal thread to stay connected). Paul, Austin, Dusty and Dave made the week better just by being there, they made the magic possible. Can’t thank them enough or appropriately pen my thoughts on how I feel about them. Class acts in every regard.
Activities- I’ll be honest, the things we got to do at BSB almost made me feel guilty. Like I wasn’t deserving enough. Literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I’m sure the others would agree. The skiing and snowmobiling were a blast, but were also challenging for the less experienced and became a team sport where we came together and pushed everyone to get outside of their comfort zone. By the end of the trip everyone was doing well enough to ski together which was awesome. It was a blast and every TF member had a grin on their face the entire time. We forgot about work, forgot about life, and essentially just disappeared and got lost in the “therapy” of the mountains.
Paul - This American will forever have a special place in my heart. What he did for us at his ranch was not only world-class, but something we will never forget. From the accommodations, to the absolutely ridiculous meals and drinks, sleigh rides, fire pit stories, and everything he and his team did for us on the mountain was hands down one of the nicest things I’ve ever experienced. Paul is the absolute man, and the fact that he pulled out all of the stops to wrap his arms around us was unreal. Being able to learn from him, his business endeavors, and the way he pours his heart and soul out to his community and the veteran community was the icing on the cake, and the same thing can be said about Paul, Austin, and Dave.
Lastly, the words above are my own, but I would like to add one thing as a current Commander. I have had the opportunity to send two of my soldiers. And being able to talk to their families and them when they got back also opened my eyes to what you guys are doing.
One of my soldiers told me “BSB saved his life”. Let that sink in.
This kid was hurting pretty bad, one of our most deployed guys, all the big mish’s, lots of loss with his closest brothers. But the week out there with you guys gave him some introspective, reset, and refreshed him to get back into the fight. At a dinner party his wife pulled me aside and told me thank you and gave me a hug for sending him out there. She said “he came back a different person”. So, from the bottom of my heart, selfishly, for everything you guys did for me, but most importantly, what you are doing for the SOF enterprise and my guys, I can’t thank you enough.
You guys are the best of the best, don’t change a thing, keep it going.
S.”
