About the Charlie Company Cooperative
Who we are — how we started — what drives us
How it started
The name comes from a platoon. 3rd Platoon Spartans, Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion 35th Infantry Regiment — the Cacti. Two tours in Iraq, '06 through '09. The men in that formation are the reason C3 exists.
Ian ETSd from Fort Carson in 2013 after three combat deployments. Like most infantry veterans, he left without a good picture of what service had done to his brain or how to talk about it. The years that followed were hard in ways that are common and rarely discussed — lost relationships, housing instability, a 30% PTSD rating that didn't reflect what was actually happening. A decade of slowly bleeding out from an under-diagnosed, service-connected wound.
In 2017 he was missing for 42 days. He came to on a beach in Oregon. Three stays at the VA residential program in Hot Springs, Arkansas followed. Eventually, with the right knowledge, the right support, and a lot of work, the picture started to change.
The turning point wasn't a program or a policy — it was education. Understanding what Complex PTSD actually is. Learning to describe his experiences in terms a civilian clinician could act on. Finding people who had been there and wouldn't flinch. In 2023, Ian was rated 100% P&T for service-connected PTSD — a decade after he first needed it. The resources were there the whole time.
He married Hilary. They returned to their faith. And they built C3 — because the same thing that happened to Ian is happening to guys right now, and the gap between "resource exists" and "veteran accesses it" is wide enough to lose a decade in.
What happens when you call
There's no intake form. No referral. No waitlist. You call or text (REP) CHARLEE — (737) 242-7533 — and someone who has been there picks up.
We talk
About your service, your situation, and where you are with the VA. No agenda. We're not selling anything and we don't have a quota. We just want to understand what you've been through.
We assess
What have you claimed? What do you qualify for that you haven't claimed? What's your current rating and does it reflect your reality? We help you build the picture.
We translate
We help you tell your story in language a civilian clinician can hear and act on. Not to exaggerate — to accurately represent what service actually did to you, without skipping over the weight of it the way veterans are trained to do.
We stay
We don't hand you a pamphlet and disappear. We follow up. We check in. We're in your corner through the claim, through the C&P exam, and beyond. Battle buddies don't rotate out.
Our six guiding principles
Care through Coordination
We want to find you, check in, talk about your service, and figure out where you are with the VA. Then we hand you a clear map — benefits you've earned, programs you qualify for, steps to get there. The resources exist. We help you reach them.
Acknowledgement through Camaraderie
C3 was founded by people who are no strangers to trauma, C-PTSD, and TBI. We will weep alongside you as we cover your flanks and find the right forms on the way to proper care. You are among brothers and sisters, judgment free.
Validation through Storytelling
Your service stories matter. We're building a documentary and a storytelling archive. Call or text (REP) CHARLEE any time to share your story. You did great things that matter in the world.
Grounding through Nature
We're building nature-based programs around our land in Colorado and Nevada — 20-acre mining claims donated to C3 as places of respite and gathering. If the land calls you, come.
Confidence through Contribution
The mission hasn't ended — the terrain changed. Put your training back to work: library talks, cleanup projects, Watch D.O.G.S., community builds. The skills that made you effective downrange make you invaluable here. Service is still the answer. The address just moved.
Healing through Connection
We are squad members, battle buddies, for life. No dues, no demands, no requirements for lifelong membership — just a desire to help yourself, serve others, and encourage the same: vets helping vets.
The team
Ian enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves in 1996 as a 2311 ammunition technician — before 9/11, before two wars, before anyone knew what the next decade would look like. When the towers fell, he was in New Jersey watching the smoke across the water. He finished his Marine time and enlisted Army as fast as the paperwork would allow.
He came in as 18X — the Special Forces enlistment option — and spent nearly two years at SOPC, Fort Bragg, medically held for a cardiac issue and serving as student cadre while the SF pipeline ran around him. He eventually reclassed to 11B Infantry and deployed with Charlie Company, 2-35 IN: Kirkuk and Baqubah, Iraq, '06–'07 (where he made Sergeant — promotion board conducted in body armor and dusty ACUs, no dress greens required), then Samarra, Iraq, '08–'09. He retrained as a 46Q combat journalist at DINFOS, moved to Fort Carson with the Rough Riders, and deployed a third time to Kandahar, Afghanistan, '10–'11, where he made Staff Sergeant.
He ETSd in April 2013. The decade that followed was the hardest of his life — and also the most instructive. He lost relationships, stability, and stretches of time he can't fully account for. He sought help and was repeatedly told he was fine. He wasn't fine. He was carrying a decade of combat stress in a body and brain that had never been given the right map to navigate it.
In 2023, he was rated 100% P&T for service-connected PTSD. Today he uses everything he learned — about Complex PTSD, the VA claims process, how to tell your story in civilian language — to help other veterans find the same footing. He's also a photojournalist, the proud father of somewhere between six and eight kids depending on who's counting, and a grandfather — one grandson so far.
He's the one who answers (REP) CHARLEE.
Hilary is a Colorado Springs native and Palmer College alumna, and she is the intellectual engine behind everything C3 knows about Complex PTSD. When she and Ian got back together a few years ago, she took one look at what she was seeing and said — clearly, without hesitation — that ain't moderate PTSD. She was right. Most people in her position would have waited for a clinician to confirm it. Hilary went and read the books.
She's a voracious reader who dove deep into the literature on C-PTSD, TBI, trauma, and recovery — then handed Ian the ones that mattered and made sure he read them too. The education that eventually led to his 100% P&T rating, and that now forms the foundation of C3's work, runs directly through her. She's the big brain. Ian is living proof that if the material is explained clearly enough, even a knuckledragger can internalize it — and go on to teach it to others.
She is also the operational core of C3: the administrative anchor, the civilian translator, and the one who keeps the mission honest. She can hear what a veteran is saying and render it in both directions — toward the clinician, and back toward the vet. The whole thing works because she makes it work.
Household Six. The rank that matters most.
Charlie Six: out
Ready to talk? No forms, no pitch — just a conversation with someone who's been there.