Donate Hero Miles to military families on Giving Tuesday and double the impact
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Karen and Mike Duggan were at home in Falmouth, Massachusetts – more than 4,000 miles away from Anchorage, where their 22-year-old son served in the Air Force – when they received his phone call from the hospital in August 2017. Seth Duggan doesn’t remember making it.
Seth and others from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson had been out in downtown Anchorage celebrating their safe return from their deployment to the Middle East when Seth was brutally attacked by a U.S. Army soldier also serving at JBER. The attack left Seth with a fractured skull. When Mike flew to Anchorage soon after, he realized his son would need his family by his side to help navigate his recovery. “We’ve spent the past two years flying back and forth, helping Seth with his medical issues and daily tasks that he’s struggled with,” Mike says.
Most of Mike and Karen’s cross-country flights have been on Alaska Airlines, provided through the Fisher House Foundation’s Hero Miles program. Hero Miles are donated by Alaska Mileage Plan members to provide flights to wounded, injured and ill service members, veterans and their loved ones.
Since 2008, Alaska’s Mileage Plan members have donated more than 90 million miles to Hero Miles. So far this year, donated miles have covered more than 220 round-trip flights, valued at more than $208,000.
On Giving Tuesday, Dec. 3, Alaska Airlines will match each Mileage Plan member’s donation starting at 1,000 miles up to a total million miles, for organizations within our LIFT Miles program, including Hero Miles. To donate miles on Giving Tuesday, Mileage Plan members can log into their mileage account and click the donate miles link.
“The generosity of people donating their airline miles to people who are in circumstances beyond their control takes the burden off a family,” Mike Duggan says. “Not having to worry about getting to our loved ones without going through financial hardship is just a blessing.”
The Hero Miles program is administered by the Fisher House Foundation, which operates 86 houses across the U.S. and Europe near bases and hospitals where military members and their families can stay long-term. “Fisher House Foundation is grateful for Alaska Airlines’ support of our Hero Miles program,” says Dave Coker, President of Fisher House Foundation. “For more than a decade, Alaska Airlines has helped us bring military families together at a critical time.”
The Duggan family was so inspired by the Fisher House generosity that they quickly became volunteers, too. “There are local organizations that bring in dinners for the military families. That just brought us to tears,” Karen says. “They get a lot of food donations and supplies from people in the area.”
Just after Thanksgiving last year, Mike and Karen surprised a Fisher House in their home state of Massachusetts.
“We packed as much as we could into our car and drove up to West Roxbury, and we bought bakery items,” Karen says. “And we brought a gingerbread house! And a bunch of little shampoos and soaps and toothbrushes – just everything we thought would be helpful.”
“That’s how much this has meant to us,” Karen says. “We wanted to show our gratitude that we could be a part of such wonderful organizations like the Fisher House and Hero Miles.”
Hero Miles also provided a way for Karen and Mike to travel to Nevada last March to watch Seth compete in the Air Force Wounded Warrior Trials. There, he was a five-sport athlete, competing in track, archery, wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball and seated volleyball.
The injuries ended Seth’s dreams for an Air Force career; more than two years later, he still has permanent hearing loss and a need for ongoing medical care. This fall he moved to Florida, where his parents now live, so he can focus on his recovery and study economics at a university nearby.
“He lost a lot because of all of this, but he’s moving beyond that and he’s looking to the future,” Karen says.
About Fisher House: The Fisher House program provides a “home away from home” for families of patients receiving medical care at major military and VA medical centers. The homes provide temporary free lodging so families can be close to their loved ones during a medical crisis. Fisher House Foundation also operates the Hero Miles Program, using miles donated by Alaska Mileage Plan members and other frequent flyers to bring family members to the bedside of injured service members. The foundation also operates the Hotels for Heroes program using donated hotel points to allow family members to stay at hotels near medical centers without charge. Learn more.
How we’re making flying matter for the long term: At Alaska, sustainability isn’t just a word; it’s a responsibility. One of our core values is to do the right thing, and that means delivering for all those who depend on us – for the long term. And our efforts are paying off. 
When the airline introduced iPad flight manuals eight years ago, Hunt spearheaded creation of numerous videos that play on the device and show pilots doing things right in various scenarios. And as he develops curricula for new-hire to longtime pilots, as well as for simulator instructors and check pilots, he uses extensive data collection, including from actual flights, to provide the best training.
Cameron, winemaker for Broken Earth since 2010, samples again when the morning’s harvest arrives at the winery facility 26 miles away. 2 tons of grapes cascade from the truck into the crusher/de-stemmer, which pipes the merlot juice and skins into two-story-tall stainless steel tanks to ferment. Cameron will taste at every step of his grapes’ journey, using a glass tube “wine thief” to draw a sample of an elegant young cabernet franc – his favorite from last year’s barrels.
“The climate is quite warm during the day but typically quite cool at night, and the relative humidity is fairly low. So that keeps disease pressures low. The upside of that is that everything will get ripe – but that’s also the downside because everything can get very ripe. You’ve got to be careful that you don’t end up with wines that are too big, too alcoholic and too soft. They tend to lose their varietal characters if they get too ripe. I like wines to stay brighter and more true to form so they’ve got the correct varietal definition. Paso allows you to grow a whole bunch of different varietals. It’s a bit too warm for the likes of sauvignon blanc, riesling and pinot noir, but it does a lot of things well, including both Bordeaux and Rhone-based varieties that don’t really occur many places. Apart from a handful of grapes you can kind of grow anything.”
The Broken Earth Winery tasting room is open daily at 1650 Ramada Dr., Paso Robles, CA. Phone: 805-239-2562. 
Kelsey grew up going to summer fly-ins in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, with her uncle, who encouraged her love for aviation. She saved up for flying lessons and did her first solo at 16 in a Cessna 150. Now, with 14 years of flying for Alaska Airlines and 23 years of serving in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, Kelsey has flown aircraft that could swallow that two-seat Cessna whole. This fall, she’s taking a month away from her Alaska job to coordinate Air Force operations in New Zealand in support of National Science Foundation missions in Antarctica.
“Flying into Antarctica is amazing, challenging and unique. McMurdo Station is one of the most remote locations on the planet. We land on a runway that’s 10,000 feet long and is made by compacting snow. During winter flights, there are no runway lights or markings, just reflectors along the edges of the runway. We use night vision goggles to land during a time of year where the temps are as cold as minus 60 F, and the sun doesn’t rise for nearly four months.”
“The hardest part is juggling your time. I think people would be surprised at how hard we work. A typical pilot flying the C-17 will work five days a month as a minimum, in addition to their full-time job at Alaska. Sometimes we fly in for Alaska in the morning and go straight to the base.”
“We work on the planes all night, and then you get that instant satisfaction: The plane was broken when it came in, and you’re able to fix it. In the morning, we take our planes from the hangar to the gate. Twenty minutes later, passengers are getting on, and they’re off to Hawaii or wherever.”
“You have to keep them all balanced. Alaska is helpful and pretty much allows me to take
my military time, no matter what. And my wife takes a lot of the burden, too. With the two of them, I have a pretty good support system. I would love to serve a total of 20 years. And as much as I love serving my country, I’m also looking forward to having a family and serving them.”
“We have a state mission responsibility, for example, in hurricane response. We also fly missions to India, Korea, Australia, Japan, Philippines and DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) recovery missions in Vietnam and Laos, just to name a few—all operations inherent to our strategic location in the Pacific Theater.”
“I bunch my Alaska flying time in a more compact schedule, just like other commuters commuting long distances. I work to be as efficient as possible to get my flying done for the company and my drills done for the Guard. It’s no different from a lot of reservists and Guardsmen you see throughout the company. They all have this commitment.”
Photo courtesy Daniel Chun
“We’ll perform in concert halls or high school gymnasiums, inside and outside. Rain, thunder, snow—it doesn’t matter. I’ve played for an audience of 12, and I’ve played for thousands.”
joined, I know him a little better. I would love to do 20 years and retire like my dad.”
