Operation Ride Home

• Applicants must be Active Duty E5 or below, and permanently stationed in Alaska. Open to single and married service members traveling with their spouses and/or dependents.
• Dependents may not complete the application unless their service member is currently deployed.
• Participants are determined and prioritized based on financial need.

Yes. Spouse and/or dependents of a deployed active duty (E5 and below) service member are eligible to apply for Operation Ride Home.

Generally, service members travel with their families. There may be instances where a service member may not be able to travel, but their family is selected for the program.

• Operation Ride Home provides the following amounts in travel assistance:
  • Flight Travel Up to $400* per family member is provided for flight costs.

• Flight costs that exceed the provided assistance need to be covered by the traveler.
• Travel destinations must be 350+ miles from a service member’s installation. Both domestic and international flights can be booked through the Operation Ride Home program.

*Flight travel is booked by the Armed Services YMCA of Alaska. Cash is not distributed by this program.

You will first need to complete the Command Approval Form, which you will upload as part of your application. Afterward completing your form, click here or scroll above to start the application process. You will be redirected to the application form on the national ASYMCA website. Applications will be forwarded to service members’ commands for review and selection.

• Applications are reviewed by installation points of contact and select applications to send to ASYMCA branches. The ASYMCA of Alaska will reach out to selected service members to coordinate travel.
• Participants are determined and prioritized based on financial need in coordination with their command.
• Service member selected by their command will need to complete additional paperwork, which will be sent via email.

Operation Ride Home is structured to help facilitate travel and offset costs as much as possible.

Traveler(s) are responsible for covering the difference should travel costs exceed the assistance amounts. Your billing information will be collected upfront to pay for these costs in the case of air travel.

Operation Ride Home is made possible thanks to Jack Daniel’s, its distributors, and generous donors. These guidelines were established by ASYMCA and Jack Daniel’s to ensure optimal benefit of donations.