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There are not many events that are as emotional as being witness to a military homecoming. I have had the honor of photographing fourteen homecomings over the past seven years at both Naval Air Station Oceana and Naval Station Norfolk. Each one is just as emotional as the one prior. There is no better site than seeing a family that has been separated by long, (and sometimes multiple) deployments be reunited. As an example, the squadrons of Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 have deployed 4 times in the seven years I’ve been covering homecomings, with each deployment lasting 6 to 7 months. The sacrifices these families make to guard our freedom is immeasurable. It is heartbreaking seeing babies that don’t recognize their fathers, however seeing the raw emotion of children that get to be with their father or mother again melts your heart.
The biggest challenge I have while recording a homecoming is capturing the emotion without being intrusive to the families. In my images it may look like it is just a couple people sharing a moment, however there are dozens of families all running to be with their loved ones at the same time. It is organized chaos, and it is my job to capture a moment that the family will treasure forever. That job is not very easy when you have hundreds of people running around at the same time, and everyone trying to take photos of that same moment with their cell phone.