Photo By 1st Sgt. Jessica Barnett | Caroline Dittamo, daughter, and Col. Michael Dittamo, commander of the Kansas...... read more read more
TOPEKA, Kan. - Deployments are a very emotional time for service members and their families. Many are so overwhelmed that taking pictures of these cherished milestones can be forgotten as they reach for their child’s first hug, or feel relief when their son is home again.
A former military spouse created a foundation of photographers to help military families capture these unforgettable images. Operation: Love ReUnited offers free photography sessions to service members and their families during a deployment. Each family gets two free sessions per deployment that can be used before, during, or after the deployment. The photographers agree to ship a 4x6 album (one per deployment) to the service member’s deployment location. This is done in hopes of boosting morale while away from loved ones. For a homecoming photo session families will receive a compact disc of the images.
Founder of Operation: Love ReUnited, Tonee Lawrence of Denver, realized the need for the program back in 2006, when her husband and father of three returned from his deployment, and she wasn't able to capture the long-awaiting faces of her little boys when they saw their father for the first time in months.
To capture these emotional moments, Lawrence has recruited more than 600 photography businesses across the nation, some with multiple photographers working on their behalf. To many service members, photos of family and friends are the life connection and moral boosters that make the time away from home a little bit easier to overcome.
"Many of us know firsthand, as children, spouses and parents of the military, how ‘real’ a deployment is,” said Jeni Turner, OpLove: Reunited regional coordinator for the Kansas City area. “It's not just a short story on the nightly news; it's not just a ‘support your troops’ e-mail forward...it's a family, broken apart to help our country for what feels like the longest year of their life. As photographers, we gladly carry the burden of sealing their moments of departure and homecoming in photographic history. It's the least we can do for the men and women who stand tall and defend our homeland.”
Operation: Love ReUnited helps families find participating photographers in their area through its website database at www.oplove.org. Families simply type in their ZIP code, contact the photographer and make an appointment for photos.
“I’m very grateful to OpLove and Jeni for the priceless gift of our photographs,” expressed Brigid Davis, wife of 1st Lt. Lindsey Davis, of Company G, 2nd Battalion, 135th General Aviation Support Battalion. “At that moment, all I could see or think of was Lindsey. My emotions were bursting. Now I can relive that moment over and over.”
The Operation: Love ReUnited website is set up only to help deploying or deployed families locate a photographer for two free sessions and the families are not obligated to purchase anything.
If you are a member or family member of the United States military, and are interested in having very special and touching images with a patriotic edge taken of you and/or your family before a deployment or during, and at your reunion, please contact a photographer in your area by finding them on www.oplove.org.
| Date Taken: | 06.13.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 06.13.2011 12:05 |
| Story ID: | 72015 |
| Location: | TOPEKA, KANSAS, US |
| Web Views: | 161 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, A moment in time captured forever, by 1SG Jessica Barnett, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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