Home is closer than you think: Travis rolls out Adopt-an-Airman program

Photo By Tech. Sgt. Amy Younger | U.S. Airman 1st Class Bobbie Briggs, front, 60th Force Support Squadron customer support technician, takes a selfie Dec. 25, 2018 in Fairfield, California, with her Adopt-an-Airman family. The Adopt-an-Airman program is designed to connect Airmen living in the dorms with local families to develop lasting relationships based on shared interests and hobbies. (Courtesy Photo)  

TRAVIS AFB, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES

12.19.2019

Story by Senior Airman Amy Younger 

60th Air Mobility Wing

To some, the holiday season looks something like a Norman Rockwell painting: a big dinner table filled with family, cozying up with cocoa by a fire, enjoying games and conversation with loved ones. However, for those in uniform, the holidays are often anything but traditional. Between changes of duty station, travel to temporary duties and deployments, making it home to celebrate the season is never guaranteed. Fortunately, for Airmen at Travis, there is a program that offers them a chance to spend time with ‘family’, even while they are away from home, the Adopt-an-Airman program.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but it was a great experience!” said Airman 1st Class Bobbie Briggs, 60th Force Support Squadron customer support technician and pioneer adoptee to the program. “I had fun; they got me a gift; they fed me. I watched the game, and they got me back on time because I worked the next day.”
Travis didn’t always have this outlet for Airmen. The program came about after local military mother and member of the Travis Regional Armed Forces Committee, Tina Norman, had an epiphany.
“Just before the holidays last year, it was all of the sudden on my heart,” Norman said. “I just had this overwhelming feeling of ‘Oh my gosh, we have Airmen sitting in the dorms with nobody and the holidays are coming. I don’t want them to be alone.’”
Norman became familiar with the Travis community and its Airmen through her work with the Travis Regional Armed Forces Committee, a support organization to the base that works directly with base leadership members like Chief Master Sgt. Derek Crowder.
“When I went to the next TRAFC meeting, I just kind of, stood up and spewed it all over ‘What can we do? I know a lot of people in the community who want to open their homes. Who can help me get word to the Airmen?’” Norman said. “That’s when Chief Crowder came up to me afterward and said, ‘I love this, let’s do it.’”
With a little over a year under its belt, Adopt-an-Airman has grown to 25 local families enthusiastic about hosting dorm residents.
For Airmen like Briggs, new to the base and newly separated from home, the program has been an outlet to decompress. A local woman and her elderly mother adopted Briggs before the holidays in 2018, and they have since spent much time together.
“It’s not just the holidays. She picks me up for church sometimes. We text and check in on each other,” said Briggs. “When I get a car, I’ll be able to pop in and see if they need anything -- pick up things from the store and help clean up around the house.”
Norman explains that the program’s biggest priority is finding the best fit for Airmen, recognizing that for many who enlist, military service means uprooting your life.
“When you leave home, everything is so new and so scary, in my opinion,” said Norman, whose son is in the Air Force. “Sometimes we make the needs much bigger than they really are – you know, it can be as simple as a friendly hug, a smile, a conversation; whatever they need, that’s what we want to provide.”
The program encourages Airmen to participate in pairs to help them feel as comfortable as possible integrating into a family, conceding that some are wary connecting with people they don’t know, Norman explained.
“Just do it,” Briggs said. “Yes, you’re going to be nervous at first, and skeptical, but be open-minded. It’s worth trying it out because it’s good to have that experience and that support out here.”
Norman emphasized that the program is ultimately all about the Airmen and participating families are dedicated to making it what Airmen want it to be.
“We want them to know that their community here embraces them, loves them and is so thankful that they’ve made this commitment to our community and to our country,” Norman said. “We want to be able to help them any way we can.”
Airmen interested in signing up for the program and families interested in hosting an Airman can email [e-mail] or visit https://www.travis.af.mil/Information/TAFB-Adopt-an-Airman/.

• Date Taken: 12.19.2019
• Date Posted: 12.19.2019 16:34
• Story ID: 356600
• Location: TRAVIS AFB, CALIFORNIA, US