LYNN — After more than six months away, Specialist Augusto Robles flew home with the help of a locally founded 501(c)(3) nonprofit that purchases flights for active-duty junior enlisted military members in pay grades E1 through E4.
Miles for Military was founded by a Marine’s mother, Maureen Byrne, who realized that a lot of active military members do not have the means to travel home, whether it’s to visit home on the holidays, to propose to their significant other, or to say goodbye to a loved one.
The flight program is for E1 to E4 junior enlisted military members from all six branches of the military, and the flights cover worldwide travel, for example, bringing an actively deployed member home from Okinawa or Guam, Byrne said.
Robles, stationed at Fort Hood in Texas, where he works as a 12-November, also known as a horizontal construction engineer, has missed many opportunities to visit home due to the costs of plane tickets. With the help of Miles for Military, Robles was able to visit his family for the first time in a while to celebrate the Fourth of July.
“Thanks to Miles for Military, my heart was full again this weekend,” Robles said. “I’m able to see my nieces and nephews… I have 10 of them, so being able to catch up with, you know, if not all of them, most of them is so fulfilling and being able to see my mother, my siblings… It was much needed and it’s refreshing and now I’m just ready to take on the rest of my contract I have left at Fort Hood.”
Robles has been on a four-year contract, and is currently finishing out year three, allowing him to come home more than just temporarily next August. Being away from his close-knit family for so long drove Robles to find a family on base.
“It’s bittersweet because growing up a family man, it’s my biggest strength, but being away from them that just helped me grow stronger mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually because I’m out there in Fort Hood by myself,” Robles said. “I was just in Europe over deployment from 2024 to 2025 and I was there by myself, but that also encouraged me to make a family away from my family.”
Robles shared that if he were without his small community of his own away from home, he’d be struggling much more with his journey in the Army. One of his friends from Georgia, who has two sons and a wife, shared with him that he fits into their family like a puzzle piece.
Having experienced those challenges herself, Byrne shared that being able to bridge a gap between an active junior enlisted military member’s missing home and being home was an act of love to her son when he was first enlisted.
Byrne shared that her son Ronan Barrett had opportunities that many others did not, including having the means to pay for flights home and back and having a car to get around.
After paying nearly $900 for one ticket home, she asked her son how other people afford to do this, and Barrett responded with “Mom, nobody goes home.”
“I’ve experienced this firsthand that a lot of people think just because we’re in the military, we would make a lot of money or just be loaded,” Robles said.
Many of these service members effectively earn the equivalent of minimum wage, Byrne added.
Following Barrett’s positive mention of volunteering at a Special Olympics event near his base, the question popped into Byrne’s mind of what if she could do something to get members off the base and into the community while making it into a greater opportunity of being able to come home.
Byrne began developing the organization during the pandemic with her other son, Rory Byrne, a practicing attorney. The organization did not receive its 501(c)(3) status until 2022, with donations for flights beginning a little more than a year ago. Since then, more than $1 million has been raised to send 1,000 members like Robles home.
To qualify for the program, applicants must complete a minimum of 25 community service hours and then apply directly on the website, Byrne said. On average, Byrne sees active service members complete 70 community service hours, and they almost always continue after coming back to base.
“I got my hours verified when I was in Poland,” Robles said. “Between the USO (United Service Organizations) and the Red Cross I gathered up 400 hours of volunteering. So once I was able to apply, the process was very smooth and quick.”
Byrne shared that being fast with responding to applications has been a top priority because she understands it’s not always a fun visit home for some members, sometimes it’s a last goodbye.
“We get in touch with them immediately and depending on when they’re flying, we get their ticket booked right away,” Byrne said. “I know (some) people believe it’s too good to be true.”
Being able to see his mother, family dog, friends, and members of the media waiting for him at Logan Airport last weekend, Robles said this welcome was one he’ll never forget.
“I will not let it die down,” Robles said. “Seeing my mother, my dog, my good friend, it was just so so so needed. You know that first hug after a while, and also seeing all those cameras as well, it was insane. They had me feeling like a celebrity for a day.”
Taking a break from the intense physical and mental load he holds on his shoulders has been hard, even with the friends he made at base, Robles said.
“It’s so tough,” Robles said. “I mean, I can’t even begin to comprehend the amount of emotional energy that you do have to put into it.”
The volunteer work requirement for the program has begun to show positive results, Byrne mentioned, where an act of putting themselves out there can make a much larger difference than expected.
“When you’re in there and you haven’t really connected with people, it’s really hard,” Byrne said. “We met this kid, he was in the Navy and he was kind of unhappy. He hadn’t found a group, so we gave him suggestions, like things to do, and I think it really helped him because he started doing the volunteer work and his whole attitude kind of changed.”
Byrne shared how much of an honor it has been to help those who give so much of themselves to our nation get home to their families.
“I know what it’s like to be that mom missing your child, and that hug, that mom hug that you know they can’t wait to get home to,” Byrne said.
The hopes to further expand the program go far, with Byrne sharing a goal of sending 5,000 military members home by the end of the year. With $1,000 allotted for each ticket, that means Miles for Military is hoping to raise more than $5 million by 2027, to help make an even bigger change in more lives.
The organization has now been able to send members home from more than 200 different bases around the world, Byrne said, making a difference and bringing awareness to the needs of more than 500,000 junior enlisted E1 to E4 active duty members across the nation.
What makes it worth it to Byrne, aside from the thousands of stories she has helped make possible, has been how proud her sons are of her.
“He’s really proud, and that makes me so happy,” Byrne said. “Ronan and Rory, both my sons.”
A final note from Robles was to his fellow junior enlisted service members to make use of the networking and resources the military and Miles for Military provides because no matter what community you’re in, whether it’s Lynn or another city, “you never know who you could meet and what they could do for you.”
“I talk about Lynn all the time,” Robles said. “I represent my city because if it wasn’t for Lynn and my childhood, my experience, my education, I wouldn’t be as confident, as extroverted, as professional and experienced as I am today. So if you don’t think that there’s an opportunity out there coming from Lynn or any other cities, there definitely is. You just have to grind.”
