THE STRONGHOLD
STRONGHOLD is a weeklong, in-person program — not a retreat — that brings veterans together with peers, physicians, and subject matter experts who understand what they’ve carried. Built on shared experience, honest conversation, and expert-led education, STRONGHOLD helps participants navigate injury, identity, purpose, and life after service, and gives them an enduring team they can lean on long after the week ends.
Since 2021, Best Defense Foundation has run STRONGHOLD cohorts for Special Operations Forces operators. In 2026, that mission expanded with the launch of Female STRONGHOLD, built specifically for women veterans. Two distinct programs, one shared mission.
Special Operations Forces STRONGHOLD
Since 2021, STRONGHOLD has brought together active-duty and veteran Special Operations Forces operators, professional athletes, physicians, and subject matter experts in a trusted cohort environment. The program supports operators as they navigate the physical, emotional, and personal realities of transition — exploring brain health, physical injury, identity, relationships, and loss of purpose through expert-led education and honest peer conversation.
STRONGHOLD helps operators reconnect with the strength, trust, accountability, and brotherhood that defined their service, while building a community that remains with them long after they leave the mountain.
The Outcomes
• Build lasting bonds with fellow operators who understand the transition
• Explore identity, purpose, and brotherhood beyond the team
• Better understand brain and physical injury through expert-led education
• Take part in honest, facilitated peer conversation
• Connect with physicians and subject matter experts who specialize in operator health
• Become part of an enduring cohort community that continues long after the program
By the Numbers
Operators and Female Veterans Served
Cohorts conducted
Hours of Education and Facilitated Discussion
Female STRONGHOLD
In 2026, Best Defense Foundation launched its first STRONGHOLD cohort created specifically for female veterans.
Women often leave military service carrying experiences that are deeply personal, frequently unseen, and not always understood in traditional veteran spaces. Female STRONGHOLD creates a trusted environment where women from different branches, ranks, eras, and backgrounds can stand together without comparison, judgment, or expectation.
Participants engage in physical challenges, expert-led education, facilitated fireside conversations, and honest peer-to-peer dialogue centered on identity, transition, grief, trauma, relationships, leadership, belonging, and renewed purpose.
Female STRONGHOLD is not about fixing women who are broken. It is about reminding them of the strength that has been there all along and showing them they no longer have to carry it alone.
The Outcomes
• Build genuine connection with other female veterans
• Explore identity and purpose beyond military service
• Better understand physical and invisible injuries
• Take part in honest, facilitated conversations
• Challenge themselves physically and mentally
• Reconnect with their strength, voice, and sense of belonging
• Become part of an enduring community of women veterans
