By Jack Reaney SENIOR EDITOR
Sustainability, continuity and the safe feeling of home will define the next chapter of Big Sky Bravery, as the nearly-10-year-old nonprofit announces plans for a long-awaited home base. Headquartered in Belgrade, the nonprofit offers decompression programs for active-duty Special Operations Forces.
In 2024, a $5 million gift from a family foundation in Chicago enabled Big Sky Bravery to purchase 85 acres on Huckleberry Tuff Road in the Michener Creek area of Big Sky. BSB plans to develop less than 1% of the land, and will build hiking trails, low-profile lodges, cabins and gathering spaces, and one motorized use trail to be used by families staying on site—BSB leaders emphasize the motorized-use trail won’t be heavily used or disruptive. The property is expected to be operational in December 2027 and will be known as Big Sky Bravery Ranch.
“We have worked tirelessly over the past year with architects to design structures that blend into the landscape and provide the utmost privacy for our recipients, and also without interrupting wildlife,” said Seth Thomas, VP of development, in a March 13 presentation to the Big Sky Resort Area District board. He added that BSB is committed to executing the project with the same “silent professionalism” of the SOF participants they serve.
To earn a conditional use permit for Big Sky Bravery Ranch required months of late nights and meetings to communicate BSB’s mission and desire to blend quietly into the forested area, CEO Josh McCain explained in an interview with EBS.
“We thought about wild game and how they flow through the property, [and] very naturalistic design elements that blend in with the scenery… Our design elements are more for experiencing nature and tranquility up there, than to be seen, or getting the best possible views for these folks,” McCain said. He explained BSB’s desire to be good neighbors and stewards of the land, rather than disruptors.
“We’re gonna deliver a product that does the special operations community the justice they deserve.”
Josh McCain, Big Sky Bravery CEO
The nonprofit has served nearly 900 recipients and a growing number of SOF families in its decade of work, and Thomas said a home base in Big Sky will be “crucial” as BSB anticipates 160% program growth in the next 10 years.
McCain envisions Big Sky Bravery Ranch as “a compound of what we consider the most deserving people in the entire world.”
Consistency and control
McCain believes the creation of a home base will have a generational impact on the organization. The $5 million gift alone elevated BSB’s status, leading further philanthropy and improving its long-term planning capacity.
In the near term, the ranch will solve one of BSB’s biggest challenges.
Since September 2015, across nearly 150 task forces—weeklong retreat programs with volunteers and active-duty Special Operations Forces members—BSB leaders have searched for homes for their participants, between expensive short-term rentals and homestays offered by generous volunteers and supporters.
“Our home base, currently, is about 30 different front doors up in Big Sky—usually about 90% of our programs are up in the Big Sky area,” McCain said. “… Which poses a lot of operational and logistical challenges.”
Starting around December of 2027, Big Sky Bravery Ranch will provide a consistent location for programming, while serving as a launch pad as participants spend most of their days exploring the outdoors.
“All the task forces, everything we do recreationally, is offsite. So we go to places like Big Sky Resort to go ski, go up on Buck Ridge,” McCain said. “… The only thing that’s onsite, which is our most important thing, is a dinner table that can fit everybody, and then a room with no distractions because our curriculum is built off of vulnerability.”
In the past, vulnerable discussions took place in living rooms and kitchen tables of whichever house the task force occupied, and McCain said it can be “very, very tough” in a new environment with potential distractions.
Soon, Big Sky Bravery will have a predictable and controllable environment.
Working with Bozeman-based 45 Architecture and Interiors, BSB designed a main lodge around program-specific needs—every bed, window blind and floor plan is tailored to the experience of participants, drawing inspiration from memorable homestays and what enabled task forces to achieve their restorative mission.
“We’re gonna deliver a product that does the special operations community the justice they deserve,” McCain said.
The power of the program
Bobbi and Jon Gilbert have volunteered for BSB since 2021. They are two of 13 volunteers that reside in Big Sky.
Both 24-year veterans of the U.S. Air Force, they served during numerous deployments across the Middle East, eastern Europe, Africa and Asia. As a combat controller, Jon spent more than 18 years within the U.S. Special Operations Command. Bobbi served in communications and legal specialties, spending years in leadership roles within special operations.
Jon said active military servants are in an insulated ecosystem, and it’s easy to lose touch with everyday Americans during 250 to 300 travel days per year. He believes Big Sky Bravery has the power to close that gap.
“I find it very powerful that there’s a decompression and a realignment of self that goes on,” Jon told EBS in a phone call. He also finds the connection and realignment between volunteers—most of whom are not veterans—to be powerful.
Bobbi volunteers with programs serving spouses and active-duty females. “In both of those instances—having been an active-duty spouse so I’ve lived in both of those worlds—that can be a lonely place,” Bobbi said. She believes BSB programs can forge unique connections between women who understand the grueling lifestyle.
“These women are only spending five days together in Montana, but years later are still connecting,” Bobbi said. She believes BSB excels at using adventure to break through the awkward get-to-know-you phase during task forces.
“The power of Big Sky Bravery, I’ve seen it and I understand how impactful it is… I can’t think of anything that can replicate what they’re doing there,” she said.
The Gilberts are optimistic about the new home base, and the ways it will eliminate variables to allow BSB to focus on the needs of its recipients.
“When there’s a standardized place that everybody knows, not only can that become and feel like a second home to all the recipients, but on the BSB side, I think there’s a lot of advantages to having an improvable and repeatable standard of living that they can make their own,” Jon said. “If you don’t know, week-to-week, where you’re running your program out of, it adds a layer of complexity.”
McCain emphasized that the Big Sky area is BSB’s home—the organization spent 144 days in Big Sky in 2024, with 156 Big Sky days scheduled in 2025.
Jon agrees. He believes many of the positive traits of successful SOF members are mirrored in the Big Sky community. “Guys picking up slack, and helping each other out, and there’s always been this communal feeling… These two communities feel very similar to me. It’s small, people look out for each other, it’s neighborly,” Jon said.
During the March 13 Resort Tax presentation, BSB Director of Development Crystal Cramer read a recent testimonial from a female active-duty recipient who enjoyed her time at Big Sky Resort during a task force.
“Along with the friendships I’ve made, I was able to experience a part of the country I’ve longed to explore for years,” the participant stated. “In special operations, there’s never a good time to take leave from work due to deployments. However, my week in Big Sky could not have come at a better time. Struggling with some life problems, I didn’t know how much I truly needed to get away from day-to-day life until I was in the mountains.
“This trip changed the trajectory of my life… I’ve never been treated with such an outpouring of love in my life.”
Cramer added BSB’s gratitude for local partners including Big Sky Resort, Lone Mountain Ranch, Canyon Adventures and East Slope Outdoors among “many, many others,” and noted BSB’s desire to giving back to the local economy and community.
“We could not think of a better place to continue this mission and our programs, and are so excited to do that alongside you all,” Cramer said.
McCain’s passion is providing peace and tranquility to active-duty service members and their families who sacrifice so much and ask for so little.
“Montana—when these folks get off the airplane—does a lot of the work for us,” he said. “It’s just up to us to find the missing pieces after they get here, and that’s exactly what this ranch will facilitate.”
