Our Story
The Combat Support Institute (CSI) was founded in 2025 by Erick Holmes and Dr. Neysa Holmes, whose lifelong bond began at the age of eight and evolved into a shared mission of service, research, and reform. CSI was established as an independent research and oversight institute dedicated to advancing ethical, evidence-based solutions for combat veterans and their families through rigorous research, scholarly publishing, and systems accountability.
CSI operates at the intersection of science, policy, and lived experience. Drawing on Erick Holmes’s service in the U.S. Army’s 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), including five combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. This Institute grounds its work in the real-world realities of combat trauma, reintegration, and institutional failures. This firsthand perspective is paired with Dr. Neysa Holmes’s academic leadership and global research expertise to ensure that CSI’s work is both empirically sound and ethically governed.
Under Dr. Neysa Holmes’s leadership, CSI functions as a research-driven organization committed to ethical oversight, independent evaluation, and scholarly dissemination. The Institute develops research protocols, supports ethical review and accountability frameworks, and publishes peer-reviewed and practitioner-informed scholarship focused on veteran health, trauma, disability systems, and institutional reform. CSI’s work is designed to identify what works, what fails, and where systems must be reformed to meet the true needs of combat veterans.
Dr. Holmes is a nationally recognized advocate for veterans’ rights, working to expose systemic barriers in healthcare access, disability determinations, mental health treatment, and legal processes. Through research, policy engagement, and public scholarship, CSI advances data-informed reform while holding institutions accountable to ethical standards and evidence-based practice.
Erick and Neysa Holmes are a proud military family with a deep-rooted legacy of service. Erick’s eighth great-grandfather served alongside George Washington, crossing the Delaware River and sacrificing his life on Christmas Eve, 1776, a legacy that continues to inform the Institute’s commitment to duty, integrity, and service.
They are the parents of one daughter (a mother of 4) and three sons. Kihle serves in the U.S. Army. Kaelib supports the Combat Support Institute by leading its IT infrastructure and research systems. Their youngest son, Erick, serves in the U.S. Marine Corps.
The Combat Support Institute exists to bring rigor, ethics, and accountability to veteran care—transforming lived experience into research, research into reform, and reform into lasting change.