His shaggy brown hair is held back by a sweatband, its unruly pieces sticking up. Toned and lean arms hold a gun in his hands, a cigar in his mouth. His brows are furrowed under a pair of sunglasses, his rugged looks consistent with his line of work.
He’s Charles Keating IV, or Charlie, a Navy SEAL.
He died almost seven years ago in Iraq on May 3, 2016. His nickname: C4.
The Keating family has close ties to Coronado and Arizona.
And C4 was so highly respected that then-Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey ordered the lowering of flags to honor the death of the Arizona high school track star who died in northern Iraq after Islamic State militants penetrated Kurdish defensive lines and launched an attack with small arms and car bombs.
This same photo is scattered throughout the house, made in different mediums; a painting, a drawing, a piece made with coffee.
He resembles his father, Charles Keating III, or C3. His dad is tall, his voice rumbles deep but quiet as he drives up to the gates of the ranch.
Ranch of 560 acres for SEALS
Named for his son, the C4 Foundation sits on a ranch of 560 acres about 90 minutes east of San Diego in Santa Ysabel.
It was founded in 2019 for SEALs and their families as a natural sanctuary from their everyday lives.
The foundation raised $1.5 million this year at one of its fundraisers to keep it operating so SEALs can recuperate and rest from their unparalleled responsibilities.
“There’s a lot that happens when we’re in nature from the perspective of science,” says Dr. Glenn Fox, the Chief Science Officer for the C4 Foundation. “Awe is a beautiful emotion…It literally changes people’s perspectives on things and they see things in great beauty, or the landscapes, in the scale that the ranch provides.”
Keating explains that one of the best ways to de-stress high performing individuals like SEALs, “is if you can get [them] into a nature based setting. It really has an enormous effect on the psyche and everything else to allow them to decompress.”
With 1,500 active duty Navy SEALs – more than half of all SEALs – stationed on the West Coast, the C4 Foundation saw approximately one-third of them at the ranch over the last year, according to Jen Cooper, the C4 Foundation’s program director.
“[The SEALs] feel like it’s their place, and it is. It belongs to them.”
-Charles Keating III
“[The SEALs] feel like it’s their place, and it is. It belongs to them.” Keating says.
Programs at the ranch
Keating adds that the stress of being a SEAL is very difficult.
“And the training is extremely dangerous, and so is obviously the deployments.” Keating says.
The ranch aims to do what they can to give these individuals the space they need to reset.
Cooper, who has been with the foundation for 3.5 years, has been the C4 Foundation’s program director for the last 2 years. But she’s known the Keating family for the last decade.
Kelly, Cooper’s husband, was the Chief SEAL in a platoon that was part of SEAL Team One, the same team that C4 was a part of.
They were in separate platoons and different locations the day C4 was killed in 2016, but they deployed together.
Having gotten her Master’s in Research and Psychology, “it was a perfect fit,” Cooper says, when it came time to join the foundation.
F.R.O.G Program
“All of our programs fall under one umbrella, and it’s called the F.R.O.G. Program…it’s Families Developing Resilience Through Optimism and Gratitude,” Cooper explains. “We have Warrior Reset, Spouse Reset, Command Offsites, Family Programming and Family Retreats.”
All of these are decompression programs, focusing on positive psychology and mental and physical recovery.
Diaphragmatic breathing, neuromuscular massages, sound therapy and mindfulness workshops also are all part of what the SEALs can do when they’re at the ranch.
Cooper added that all of the programs and good food results in “camaraderie of the guys being together, or in some instances, the families together.”
But they don’t have to participate in these activities if they don’t want to, says Cooper.
“As part of just the family retreat, they can come and they can schedule a stay up at the ranch without any interference from us whatsoever,” Cooper said.
The ranch
A canopy of trees tunnels the road up to the C4 ranch.
It’s windy and bumpy, indicative of the rest of the drive on the property. Getting anywhere within the ranch requires driving a 4-wheeler golf cart.
The main house comes into view, a portion of it loosely resembling Italian architecture. Vines crawl up one side of the stone wall, arched wooden double doors open to the backyard.
Inside the house, the Italian ambience turns to a cabin-in-the-woods atmosphere.
A mixture of wood paneling and stone is used throughout. Leather couches and animal-hide seats fill the space. Antlers and horns and wooden animals are hung on the walls, above the mantels, over doorways.
Outside the house, farm animals can be seen grazing: an enclosure with llamas and an alpaca, a field with goats and a coop of ducks; but deeper into the heart of the property, more unusual animals appear.
There is a bison, at the bottom of a small hill, still on the C4 ranch.
Keating points at it from a deck that the Foundation built, overlooking the entire valley.
Serene setting
It’s quiet up here, the wind playing the loudest tune.
Farther into the ranch, it looks like there are large cows resting with horses nearby. But these are not regular cows.
They are Ankole-Watusi cows.
Long, thick horns protrude from their head, easily 2 or 3 feet long on both sides. They approach the 4-wheeler and Keating drives off.
Small lakes, rivers and even a waterfall are on the ranch. Hiking trails snake through the hills and valleys, all for the SEALs and their families.
Cozy cabin
Another house is tucked away on the ranch. It’s a bit smaller, though nothing on this ranch actually feels small, but with just as much of a cozy, cabin getaway feel as the main house.
Everything in these houses were left by the previous owners. Cookware, decorations, furniture.
But placed throughout are reminders of what this ranch is for.
The SEALs that visit will bring mementos from the field, artwork or awards they’ve gotten to display at the ranch.
Many of the items displayed are renditions of the photo of C4, or gifts in honor of him.
C4 was 31 when he died. After a spectacular high school career in track, he went to Indiana University, following in his father’s footsteps. C4 was a student at Indiana from 2004-06 and ran on the track and cross-country teams, but he left college to enlist in the Navy and to become a SEAL.
He graduated from SEAL training in 2008, another major accomplishment considering that just 1 in 4 complete it, according to the NAVY.
C4 watching over
Throughout the day, Keating would make quiet comments, almost as if to himself.
So many aspects of the ranch were somehow perfect, perfectly falling into place or items perfectly left behind, Keating remarks.
And he credits it to C4 watching over them.
The Keating family was able to purchase this 560-acre property, fully built and fully furnished at a heavily discounted price, Keating said. He did not disclose the amount.
The previous owner of the ranch grew up with her parents in the Air Force, and she understood the importance of what the Keatings wanted to do, he said.
Her husband was also, at one point, one of the largest shareholders in Pepsi, says Keating, pointing to a large painting of a Pepsi can that was left behind by them.
One of C4’s teammates talked about how C4 would take an entire case of Pepsi with him on deployment.
“Well, he loved Pepsi, and now we have Pepsi as a sponsor,” Keating says.
