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Capt. Richard Weathers spent 30 years serving in the Navy, missing countless holidays and special moments with his wife and daughters over the course of several deployments.
Weathers was deployed to the Gulf War almost immediately after the birth of his oldest daughter. Although his deployment was only meant to last six months, it was extended, leaving his wife, Andrea, to navigate the first 16 months of their daughter's life alone.
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In the days before FaceTime and Skype, communication between a deployed spouse and loved ones back home was usually limited to writing letters and the very rare phone call. Andrea would regularly go two or three months without even speaking to her husband. She and her daughters would send packages for birthdays and holidays so "the kids could feel like he was celebrating with us."
At times, Richard was able to make a quick call home from a plane, but he was limited in what he could discuss, and each sentence had to end with a curt "over" per aviation guidelines. "At least I could hear his voice," Andrea remembers.
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Another particularly tough moment came as the Weathers family prepared for their youngest daughter's first year of college. Just before it was time to drop her off, Richard got orders to move to Okinawa, Japan. "I bawled my eyes out the whole way there," Andrea says, remembering how she rushed to settle her daughter into her freshman dorm and then boarded a plane to Japan the very next day.
"We always talk about the little ones during deployment or foreign duty stations, which is very hard, obviously. But then when they're older, it's a whole different set of worries," says Andrea. Over the next three years, the Weatherses would miss countless more moments with their daughters.
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Andrea says their family would never have made it through without the incredible sense of community they found with the USO and other military families. This allowed them to create a sense of normalcy and camaraderie and make sure special occasions still felt special. "[My daughters] could relate to other military kids — all of them going through the same thing — and that made it easier for [them] to deal with their dad's deployment."
Powered by this community's generosity, the USO works hard to help families like the Weatherses find community and stay connected no matter where they are in the world. Our centers are comforting spaces where troops will always find a warm welcome and a staff member or volunteer ready to give them the support they need. Thank you for making this important work possible for the heroes sacrificing so much in service of our country.
The USO
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Photos courtesy of the Weathers Family
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