by Mica Magday, Fort Worth Report
October 26, 2026

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Aaron Godsey attended his first Christmas party organized by the nonprofit Holidays & Heroes with his wife and six children in 2023.

“It was honestly beyond my expectations for what I expected to see,” he said.

The holidays often mean cookies and festivities in the living room, but for families at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, they mean F-35 simulators, Star Wars characters and Santa parachuting down from a Beech 18 World War II airplane. 

Santa parachutes down from a helicopter to join the Holidays & Heroes Christmas party. (Courtesy | Rick Irving/Holidays & Heroes)

Holidays & Heroes is a military support nonprofit that assists local junior enlisted military families of active duty, reserve and guard members — especially those at the Fort Worth naval air base. While the organization has community events year-round, it is best known for its holiday activities involving gifts, celebrations and meals for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. 

Tarrant Area Food Bank partners with Holidays & Heroes each Thanksgiving to assemble and prepare meals for military families at the Fort Worth naval base. 

“They certainly are working very hard on behalf of our country and on behalf of all of us as citizens, and so paying it forward to them is particularly important,” said Julie Butner, the CEO of Tarrant Area Food Bank. 

Since he joined the Navy, the 28-year-old Godsey said he hasn’t come across an organization that supports the local base to the extent Holidays & Heroes does. He appreciates how the organization takes care of the stressful, practical part of the holidays, especially for Christmas.

“You can really focus on enjoying the time with your family,” Godsey said. “It also gives you another sense of community, almost like a second family.”

That sense of community can be difficult for petty officers to find since they often move to a new station every two to four years. Godsey’s family is in Columbus, Ohio, so big celebrations like Holidays & Heroes are hard to find. 

Ashley Chatman, the wife of Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Chatman III, feels that same gratitude for the community their family receives each Christmas. 

“I’m in tears every year,” Chatman said. “We wouldn’t have Christmas without them, and my kids deserve that. They deserve Christmas.”

Chatman heard of Holidays & Heroes when the family was financially struggling. Similarly to Godsey, Chatman and her husband were hesitant to ask for help, but Chatman assures junior sailors and other military service officers that Holidays & Heroes creates an open and warm space for their families.

“I wish someone would have told me, swallow your pride and open your heart, because they don’t shame you for struggling,” Chatman said. “It is really just a big party that is focused on you and your families.”

Chatman said excitement replaced their hesitation when their favorite Star Wars characters greeted them on base. 

“My favorite part is watching my kids,” Chatman said. “Not everybody always accepts them, the way they explore and enjoy things. But with (Holidays & Heroes), they just embrace them and all these other kids and just let them be who they are.”

Military families smile at the Holidays & Heroes Christmas party in a Navy aircraft maintenance hangar at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth. (Courtesy | Rick Irving/Holidays & Heroes)

The Christmas party that has grown into a Fort Worth military family staple with over 700 attendees started out as an idea from Kerre Ortegel.

Then a stay-at-home mom, Ortegel said that around 2010 or 2011, she had heard a radio chaplain ask the public for packages of stuffed stockings to donate to troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan. In response, she rallied neighbors, friends and family to send about 300 stockings. 

Ortegel didn’t want to stop there. Thinking about the military families at the nearby naval air base, she realized she could give back in her own way and thought of organizing their Christmas party with a purpose.

In that first year, Ortegel and her husband hosted two sessions, with 20 families attending the first and 19 the second. They set up a few tables, a spot for Santa, pizza and desserts that were left over from a party she had in her home the night before. 

The setup was small, but the impact was immeasurable. She saw how meaningful their support was to them, and how those on the base can feel isolated being away from family and loved ones.  

“That first year’s experience is what let me know that there really is a need for this,” Ortegel said. “Seeing that relief on their faces, and then just hearing the gratitude that they had. … You could just tell that you were really making a difference.”

This year will mark their 12th Christmas at the Fort Worth naval base. Ortegel looks forward to continuing to give back to the military men and women who come through Fort Worth and North Texas. 

“It’s become my passion and my purpose,” Ortegel said. “You feel peace, knowing that you’ve been able to put smiles on a lot of people’s faces. Those smiles may not have been there otherwise.” 

Mica Magday is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at mica.magday@fortworthreport.org. 

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