UNMATCHED CAREER: (Above left) Sergeant Major Pepe Ramirez, USMC (Ret) in 2015; (Above right) Mind, body, and spirit training. Before retiring, Pepe established and standardized the Division's Combat and Operations Stress Control Program (COSC).

Combat and Operations Stress Control Program (COSC). This program focused on families experiencing deployment or predeployment to combat duty. It encompassed training and certifying all coordinators at the 180 reserve unit sites throughout the United States. Under Pepe, this program trained and readied all Family Readiness Officers, Substance Abuse Officers, Mental Health Providers, and the Health Assessment programs throughout the Division. His work was commended by the Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Regiment and the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.

After retiring and obtaining his master’s degree, Pepe established Combat Vets Helping Combat Vets and contacted Ryan Fullmer and Eddie Gomez to discuss synergies between the two organizations. Ryan and Eddie saw the potential he had created in his own consulting business, which focused on helping both combat veterans and their families suffering from post-traumatic stress. This was the point at which Ryan and Eddie recognized that they needed someone of Pepe’s stature and military bearing who could deal with the veterans who were coming through the program.

This affiliation happened quickly, and they began the integrated approach to treat both maladies, TBI and PTSD, in paral

lel. This team, the Rocky Mountain Hyperbaric Association for Brain Injuries and the Combat Vets Helping Combat Vets, is the only known integrated TBI-PTSD program in the country, which now has a documented and successful track record, complemented by Sergeant Major Pepe A. Ramirez, USMC (Ret).

FULL CIRCLE: Combat Vets Helping Combat Vets focuses on helping both combat veterans and their families suffering from posttraumatic stress.

New paths and ways of thinking have been forged due to their integration of treatment for brain injuries and post-traumatic stress. Pepe explains his methods in dealing with veterans: “During our hyperbaric treatment for TBI, I am right there when they open up about anger, guilt, grief, and other things that cause them consternation and withdrawal. In addition to my hands-on PTSD counseling during the TBI treatment program, I lead a physical exercise program at a local recreation center. It is another dimension of the mind, body, and spirit program that I provide for them.” This program re-establishes and increases both strength of the body and the clarity and coping skills of a confused mind that is starting to regain lost memory. Pepe reminds them of days past. “This is all in sync with the treatments that provide physical healing of the brain and body. It is easy to see that these exercises give them renewed confidence. Then the spirit usually follows if that warrior believes in a higher power. The