A Hero’s Homecoming | NAS Lemoore, California
I’ve waited months to write this post. I kept trying to find the right words to communicate what this day felt like — thinking that, if I composed this properly, it’d be as though you all were there too and you’d understand why it was one of the most meaningful shoots we’ve ever done. Or, if I didn’t do a great job of expressing how this day made us feel, I’d have failed in my job, which I consider first & foremost to be story-telling.
We’d worked with this family a few times (with her extended family here, and with herself & her parents here) before Katheryn emailed me with a truly awesome request: would V & I be willing to trek to Lemoore, CA, to capture her naval-pilot husband’s homecoming from the middle east?
There was no question. Aside from the fact we’ve really loved getting to know her family, we wanted to be there to finally meet her husband and to share in the INCREDIBLE joy of him coming home to his girls. One of his daughters had barely been born when he’d been deployed! We’d work out whatever she had to spend on this cuz we were going.
When we arrived in Lemoore, we had to be signed in to the base (a little nerve-wracking; I mean, I had no reason to think they’d turn us away, but I guess you never know!) and straightaway I felt like I was walking onto the set of Top Gun. Enormous hangars, military personnel everywhere, jets streaming overhead, and gorgeous navy wives (and kiddos) flooded with anxious anticipation, ready to hold their husbands for the first time in a year.
We found Katheryn and her little ladies, and a few people explained to us how the event would unfold. Shortly after some intros and a few atmosphere photos, we heard the rush of planes in the distance and ran outside to capture them flying above us in formation before they landed and taxied to the area in front of the hangar. The crowd moved into the sunshine, each person’s eyes locked on the jet that contained their loved one. It was overwhelming, the air glutted with pure emotion. As an adult in these types of intense situations, I feel like it’s universally understood but not acknowledged that all those ~feelings~ are nearly palpable, but the kids don’t know any better; and Katheryn’s daughter Sophie, sensing the energy but not really comprehending the situation, clung to her mother with tears in her eyes. I watched her knowing that I was also kinda nervous/overwhelmed/expectant.
In the distance, the tops popped off the cockpits and the pilots began to disembark from their F18s. They lined up in a row a solid football field away from the crowd and started walking toward everyone, each pilot holding roses for their (at this point) super-excited family members. Everyone around us was bouncing and waiving until the pilots are about halfway to the hangar, and then the families exploded in a sprint toward the pilots. [No one had prepared us for the rush, so when everyone all the sudden started running, and there were tens of bodies blocking our view of our clients, V & I looked at each other for a split second as if to say, ‘ohhh shit’… and then we just started running, too, holding our cameras out & scattering our shots in blind hope of finding our particular pilot.]
We found Patrick among the mob just in time to see him kneel down to catch a squealing Sophie. He had a colossal smile on his face as he scooped up his little girl and, then, his wife & baby daughter into his arms, and I felt simultaneously uber invasive and vicariously giddy as I clicked away at this precious, precious moment. This family was whole again and, as Katheryn kept saying to the girls, ‘Daddy’s HOME.’
We photographed them reuniting with each other and, also, with other pilot’s families, and then everyone headed back to the hangar for a party. Sophie wouldn’t leave her father’s side for a moment — she had to be touching him at all times, making herself the center of his attention, and Katheryn teared up several times watching the father-daughter bond so easily bubble up despite Patrick’s lengthy absence. It was surreal and profound watching these people celebrate not just their hero’s homecoming but the powerful bonds of love, marriage, and parenthood. As I see it, experiences like that day celebrate the best parts of humanity.
