“I’ve been volunteering at the USO since June 2025. I wanted to get involved and give back at the same time as I serve in the USN. I’m from Waukegan, Illinois. It’s a very military area, and I grew up about twenty minutes from the Naval Training Station. I’ve been here for a year and a couple of months now.

This opportunity through this program means so much to me. I’m away from my children. I’m an older sailor who enlisted after raising my children. It has always been a dream of mine to serve in the military, but family comes first. I raised my family and waited until my children were older.
I’m going to go home and see my children. My daughter is having her final reconstructive surgery after being born with a cleft lip and palate. She is finally having her last surgery, and it means the world to be able to go home to Illinois and be with her. It has been a long journey for us to get to this point, concluding all of the surgeries she’s had since she was one and a half years old. Now she’s eighteen.

I am so very close to my children. This has been hard for them, but they have always been my number one priority. Through this opportunity, I’m still putting them first when they need me. Hopefully, soon we will be together again.”