Nonprofit flies troops home for milestones they can't afford to miss

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(The Center Square) – For junior enlisted military members earning about $30,000 a year, the cost of a round-trip ticket home can be the difference between witnessing a family milestone and missing it entirely.

Miles for Military, a Boston-based nonprofit, is working to close that gap – one flight at a time.

The program offers to fly junior enlisted service members home for special occasions if they first spend 25 hours volunteering off-base in their communities. When Geoff Rehnert, a co-founder and co-CEO of Audax Group and a board member of Miles for Military, first heard the idea, he was struck by a gap he hadn't known existed.

"I had no idea that the military did not provide transportation home for enlisted personnel, and I was unaware how little they were paid and what a hardship it was for so many of them to go for years without being able to afford to see their families," Rehnert told The Center Square.

He took the idea to friends and acquaintances who had served or were senior military officers. All of them, he said, saw it as addressing a critical unmet need.

"I believe that the most significant impact on our junior personnel is that it improves morale and their sense of being cared for and appreciated for their service by the people in the country that they are serving," Rehnert said.

The volunteer component, he said, serves a dual purpose.

"It is an incentive to get troops out of their barracks and into the communities on or surrounding the base where they are stationed and to engage in an activity which both helps the community and improves their own mental health and sense of well-being," Rehnert said. "It also gives them a sense that they have earned something that is above and beyond what their military contract entitles them to – and everything in the military is earned."

Since its founding, Miles for Military has flown 818 junior enlisted service members home from more than 150 military installations across the country and around the world, nonprofit founder Maureen Byrne told The Center Square. The organization is aiming to fly 5,000 troops home in 2026.

Ticket prices vary widely: domestic flights around the holidays average more than $700, while international flights average more than $950, with some routes, such as those from Guam, exceeding $2,000. A single donor is covering the organization's overhead costs, meaning all public donations go directly toward flights.

The need is vast. There are approximately 500,000 junior enlisted personnel – E1 through E4 – eligible for the program, according to the Defense Department's 2022 Demographics Profile of the Military Community. They represent the bottom quartile of more than 1.3 million active-duty service members in terms of rank and pay. That figure does not include the Coast Guard, which is administered by the Department of Homeland Security rather than the Defense Department.

"We need the financial support of the public to be able to fly everyone home who will want to take advantage of this program," Rehnert said. "In addition to the institutional donors and corporate partners we are beginning to work with, we are going to need donations of money from the public."

The flights that matter

The troops Miles for Military is preparing to fly home reflect the range of milestones that distance and finances can put out of reach.

A graduation, finally

Airman First Class Natrese Dorsey, 28, is stationed at Yokota Air Force Base in Tokyo, Japan. Her youngest sister Kayla is set to graduate from Winthrop University, with the ceremony in Charlotte, North Carolina, on May 9, and Dorsey is planning to be there, a milestone she has not been able to afford in the past.

"Having the opportunity to make it home and have something to present as a gift instead of arriving empty handed is what this trip ticket means to me. This trip would have otherwise cost me my entire savings," Dorsey told The Center Square.

Dorsey volunteers with the USO and said the experience has given her a new appreciation for what it takes to create a welcoming environment for troops and civilians alike.

"I learned that to maintain a space like that takes a team of mindful individuals working diligently both externally and internally to maintain peace and harmony. I learned how tangible and vital those soft skills are and what they can mean for an entire organization," she told The Center Square.

Her sister Kayla said she is looking forward to the reunion.

"I haven't seen her in a while so I'm really excited," she told The Center Square.

There for the birth

Airman First Class Clayton Warr, 24, has been on temporary duty assignment for nine months. His first daughter is due at the end of the month, and a Miles for Military flight will get him to Utah in time.

"Our first daughter is going to be born at the end of the month and being able to go and see the birth is life changing," Warr told The Center Square.

Warr, based at JBSA Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, is traveling from training in North Carolina to Utah, where he also plans to attend baby showers and a blessing for the newborn.