2026 Season Highlights
2026 Newsletter
This was our 16th year reuniting post-9/11 combat veterans in Montana’s Big Sky Country. This was our busiest season to date. We expanded our program from three to five trips this summer, thanks to the generosity of Americans like you.
1/8 Combat Engineers at Snowcrest Ranch
Our first retreat of the season was for six Combat Engineers attached to the 1st Battalion, 8th Marines during the Battle of Fallujah. Ted Turner donated his Snowcrest Ranch in Big Sky, Montana, to host the retreat, and it proved a spectacular venue. Snowcrest may be Montana’s best-kept fly-fishing secret, as every retreat participant caught at least a dozen trout. Ted Turner passed before the June retreat, but all indications are that his foundation will continue to support the Bar X Project by making his ranch available in the years to come. Mr. Turner was a great American and a great outdoorsman, who preserved and improved the natural beauty of the land he owned, and understood the healing power nature brings to the soul. We appreciate his lifelong steadfast support for military veterans.
1st LAR
In July, we held two retreats at the Two Rivers Lodge in Nye, Montana. The first was for members of the 1st Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (LAR) who deployed to Al Anbar Province, Iraq, from 2004–2005. When they deployed, they left their Charlie Company behind for an Okinawa rotation, but Charlie Company joined the Okinawa Marine Expeditionary Unit and engaged in heavy combat during the Battle of Fallujah. The Battalion Commander from that deployment was joined by the company commanders, including Charlie Company Commander Gil Juarez. Gil and his Marines were featured in the documentary WARPIGS: Block by Block in Fallujah – The Untold Story of Charlie Company, 1st LAR.
4th LAR
The 1st LAR veterans were followed by veterans with 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. They deployed with the 3rd LAR Battalion to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in 2009–2010. Bravo Company is a reserve unit headquartered in Frederick, Maryland, so most of the Marines who deployed to Afghanistan were from the local area. During the morning of January 23, 2010, the platoon was attacked by a suicide bomber who killed three of the Marines and badly wounded several more.
One of the casualties that day was a popular, competent, and respected Sergeant named David J. Smith. His mother, Mary Jane McWilliams, started a foundation built around an annual golf tournament in her son’s name. She has remained in contact with his platoon mates. In July, she became the first Gold Star Mother to attend a Bar X Retreat. To say that she and the Marines from her son’s platoon have grown close is an understatement. Towards the end of the retreat, she said:
2nd FAST Co. 6th Platoon
In August, we held our first retreat at the brand-new purpose-built venue located in the Bear Gulch area of the 4 Creeks Ranch in Big Timber. We hosted former members from the 6th Platoon of the 2nd Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team. These FAST Marines had spent 2001-2003 doing missions around the country before being sent to various infantry battalions in 2003. All of them saw heavy combat; many were wounded in battle, and none had been together as a group since they left FAST Company. As usual, seeing them come together as if they had seen one another last month, instead of 23 years ago, was moving.
MTT-4
In September, we returned to Bear Gulch to host Colonel Jeff Kenney’s Military Transition Team 4, which served together in Iraq in 2006, mentoring the Iraqi Army’s 2nd Brigade, 7th Division, in Al Anbar Province. Early in that deployment, Jeff’s Humvee was hit by a massive IED that killed the two Iraqis in the rear seat and badly wounded Jeff, his driver, SSgt Jasper Key, and his team’s Corpsman, HM2 Enrique Romero. The IED was so powerful it blew Doc Romero and SSgt Key out of the vehicle. The Bar X trip was the first time the three had been together since they were wounded, and Jeff learned that SSgt Key, despite multiple fractures, contusions, and lacerations, had pulled him free of their vehicle before the ordnance inside started to cook off. Jeff intends to write a medal citation for Jasper to recognize his personal bravery and devotion to duty. September marked the first Bar X retreat to result in the recommendation of a long-overdue medal citation.
“I feel like a crushing weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can finally breathe again. I thought the memorial golf tournament I’ve been running for years had run its course. Through their stories, I realized how much of an impact I am having, and I realized I can keep doing this till the day I die.”
“Listening to them, seeing them was an intense experience for me as the ranking Marine of the group. They mean the world to me.”
July also saw the return of long-time volunteers/donors, Neil Clark and Matt Conrad. They cooked for both July retreats and, as they always do, helped bring this year’s participants into the Bar X family. Great Americans like Neil and Matt provide the magic that makes Bar X retreats so memorable for our nation’s combat veterans. They not only received a well-earned Bravo Zulu from the Bar X team, but they scored some great merch in the form of the uber-popular Bar X hoodie. You too can score a Bar X hoodie on our website: barxproject.org
GAO 2026 Report on DoD Suicide Prevention
The Government Accountability Office released a report that was essentially a comprehensive audit of the Department of Defense (DoD) suicide-prevention efforts. It was not encouraging. Despite years of mandatory suicide-prevention training costing tens of millions of dollars, the DoD does not know whether its suicide-prevention training is effective, whether it yields meaningful outcomes, whether it is tailored to different audiences and experiences, or even whether the training has been conducted.
The report acknowledges that active-duty military suicides have continued rising despite vast sums of money and increased efforts to combat the problem. The GAO Independent Review Committee then transitions to something of keen interest to the Bar X Project: “one-size-fits-all” institutional training is not enough. They are now recommending:
smaller group engagement,
relationship-centered interaction,
peer-based discussion,
personalized delivery,
leadership vulnerability,
and approaches built around trust and shared experience rather than compliance-based training modules.
The Bar X Project does not suspect the GAO has been reading our social media stories, but they sure sound like they have. The Bar X Project is human reconnection. Every summer our Veterans reconnect:
with people they trust,
with parts of themselves they lost,
with purpose,
with peace,
with identity,
and with the understanding that they are not alone.
The GAO report highlights the limitations of institutional-only, top-down approaches when meaningful human connection is absent. As the DOD studies this issue, it increasingly seems to recognize that prevention cannot simply be “delivered.” It needs to be relational, contextual, and human. That’s the heart of The Bar X Project!
James Moran, Jr.
Executive Director
The Bar X Project, Inc.
Post Traumatic Winning
Michael “Mac” McNamara, author of From Trauma to Joy and Colleen Can’t Forget, continued to touch the souls of our veterans with his Post Traumatic Winning Seminar. Every participant received a copy of From Trauma to Joy, and as usual, Mac spent the evening talking with the Marines and Corpsmen about their experiences since coming home from Iraq or Afghanistan. His seminar remains the most popular event during our retreats.
Staying Connected Heals: The Bar X Project Challenge Coin
Every challenge coin carries a message. The Bar X Project coin carries two.
On the front, “Staying Connected Heals” circles the Bar X brand, all in gold and deep green enamel. On the back, “Committed to Making a Difference” frames a full-color photo of a lone angler casting across a Montana river at sunset. Together, the two sides sum up what Bar X has done since 2011. We believe the bond built overseas is one of the strongest tools a veteran has for healing, and it shouldn’t end when the deployment does.
This year, every Bar X participant and volunteer received one of these impressive challenge coins. You can earn one too with a $250 (or more) donation to the Bar X Project.
Giving
The Bar X Project relies on the financial generosity of American families and charitable foundations. We use 100% of the money we receive to reunite post-9/11 combat veterans with members of their units for four nights and five days in the outdoorsman’s paradise of Montana. By scanning the QR code, you can help keep our important work going. 100% of your donation is tax-deductible. You can also volunteer your time by filling out the volunteer tab on our website.
The Harnish Foundation
The Names Family Foundation
The Patriot Fund Inc
The Wrobel Family Foundation
The Rota Foundation
The Snowy Owl Foundation
Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation
Koning Revocable Living Trust
The Bar X Project Board Members
When we think of giving, we often think of financial donations. However, generosity takes many forms, including time. We couldn’t host so many Veteran retreats without special people who volunteer their valuable time to the Bar X Project.
Rob Lowe, Montana Host, Fishing Guide, Chef
Chris Hare, (The Storied Future) Storytelling and Videography
Neil Clark, Montana Host and Chef
Matt Conrad, Montana Host and Chef
Matthew Young, (tworiversmontana.com) Montana Host and Fishing Guide
LtCol Rob Schwarz, USMC (Ret), Manager of the Four Creek Ranch
Christian Sundt, Owner of the Four Creek Ranch
Brandon Causey, Four Creeks Ranch Chef
David Allen, AA&A Auto Rental, Billings, MT
Ron Tapia, Art Direction and Newsletter Producer
Chris Matthews, Story Writer and Social Media Coordinator
Greg Sweney, (GregSweney.com), Photographer
Welcome Aboard
The Bar X Project is fortunate to welcome Chris Matthews to our growing volunteer list. Chris Matthews is a retired Reconnaissance Marine and Freelance Writer. Chris served in Iraq and Afghanistan. After 13 years of service, he was medically retired. He resides in Dana Point, CA, with his wife, Amy. Chris is a current SOFREP contributor and, in his free time, swims, bikes, and runs, and looks for adventures with his wife. Chris attended two of our retreats this summer and is collaborating with Ron Tapia to coordinate our social media campaign.
Social Media
Our social media campaign is expanding in scope and content. Photographers Greg Sweney and Chris Matthews covered three of our five 2026 retreats and provided plenty of quality shots for future storyboards. The stories we post on social media reflect the professionalism, spirit, and sacrifice of our war fighters. We encourage you to share them on your social media with family, friends, associates, co-workers, and anyone else in your orbit. We want to continue to grow and expand our retreats, and our social media campaign is making that happen.
What started out as one weekend trip in 2011 for four veterans has flourished into helping over 600 combat veterans find their peace. We have only begun.
What the Veterans are saying about THE BAR X PROJECT
“This trip has been more healing and helpful as it brought those of us who’ve actually served together into the same process. It was immensely rewarding to see those guys again.” — 2026 Bar X Participant
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