Airman takes command of Operation Reconnect

  • Published
  • By Technical Sgt. Emily Alley
  • 442d Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Missouri --  Rank can be misleading in the Air Force Reserve. At the 442d Fighter Wing at least one Airman is a CEO.

Senior Airman Ryan Charrier, an assistant crew chief on the A-10 Thunderbolt II, recently left his previous civilian job, as a steam turbine designer, moved two thousand miles away from Whiteman, and is now working full time running a company he founded, Operation Reconnect. His organization just secured legal status as a nonprofit, which he estimated would take eight months. His application took 28 days. Despite the promising future of his new company, Charrier has no plans to leave the wing.

His goal is to improve the quality of life of military members and their families. An idea came to him during his most recent deployment to Bagram, Afghanistan in 2014.

One of his coworkers, Technical Sgt. Ken Campbell, mentioned that he'd been in the Air Force 28 years and had never had a vacation.

"When you're married and take a trip it's usually a question of who you'll visit," said Campbell. "That's not a vacation. That's not relaxing."

Charrier, who knew several families with beach houses along the American Gulf Coast, made several phone calls from Afghanistan and found a beach house the Campbells could use for free for a week following the deployment.

"His idea was that the minute we drive in, until seven days later, it would be stress-free," recalled Campbell. "When you've deployed for six months it's hard to bring everything together. What does your wife want to do? What do your kids want to do? If you stay home, she'll work and they'll have soccer practice. I probably would have mowed the grass. A vacation was a new environment for everyone and we could relax together."

Campbell's family had originally planned to take a road trip to help some friends move after he returned from Afghanistan. Cherrier had a different idea.

He arranged for them to stay in a condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama. When the Campbells arrived, they were greeted by a welcome banner. The staff threw them a party. Everyone applauded as they walked in. They were given a welcome basket with gift certificates, toys for the kids and tickets to events- including a dolphin cruise.

"We were up every morning to watch the sunrise," said Campbell. "When we walked out the back door we were standing in sugar-white sand."

Campbell's wife found Cherrier a few months later at the wing's Christmas party to thank him.

"After talking for a minute or two, my wife was in tears," Campbell recalled.

"At that moment I knew that was my purpose in life," said Charrier.

He scaled up the operation and started a social media page to match deployed military members with property owners willing to share their accommodations. Charrier calls it a gift of time to a family to reconnect after a deployment. He has not actively solicited for properties; in fact, owners find him and have already offered $300,000 worth of rental time for this fall. His page also caught the attention of a lawyer, whose firm offered thousands of dollars of pro bono legal work that helped in securing his nonprofit status.

"I'm a big believer in doing what you love," said Charrier. "So I jumped in."

He had planned to work on the project over the course of the next year- but he'd only been home from his deployment a few months before moving into his new company full time.

"This summer is the launch," said Staff Sgt. Zach Southard, a lead crew chief at the 442d Fighter Wing and- technically- Charrier's military boss and Operation Reconnect's civilian vice president of internal affairs. "By the end of the summer we'll know what we can do."

If he's successful, Charrier plans to hire veterans and their families to join his staff. He's in the process of building an online application that will allow veterans to submit DD-214s to request a vacation and begin to fill the rental properties for the fall. While the website says the system is not yet open, Charrier is still happy to take emailed requests.

Southard accepted his position as Charrier's vice president while they were deployed together in Afghanistan. He did not get to try the vacation package, but for now, he said, he's happy to help other veterans reconnect with their families.