The Fort Bragg Family of the Year is a unique title given to just one family every year who exemplifies the spirit of military families.

This year, the Fort Bragg Army Community Service chose the Vona family to represent Fort Bragg families.

Capt. Sam Vona, his wife Kristen, and their two daughters, Presley and Kathryn, have been through a lot in 2021. Vona, part of the 2nd Battalion, 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, was alerted that he would deploy to Iraq on New Year's Eve. Vona had two hours to get his things ready to go, say goodbye to his family and then head out.

Then in August, Vona was called again to deploy last-minute to Afghanistan to help with the withdrawal of troops. Despite it being stressful for his family, Capt. Vona said that he was glad to have gone.

"I'm glad I was a part of it," Capt. Vona said. "With the unit that I have, and the unit that I'm with, I'm happy to be part of history."

The Vonas have been married for seven years and met while both were serving in the Army. Since they married, they have been stationed together in Germany and Capt. Vona has deployed several times. When their daughter, Kathryn, was born last year, Kristen Vona became a stay-at-home mom.

"Overall, it's been a wonderful experience. Things are difficult sometimes for sure, especially on the family," Kristen Vona said. "But I really enjoy being home now with the girls to kind of give them some stability. So, we are enjoying the dynamic that we have now."

For the past two years, Vona herself has been part of her husband's battalion through her role as the Family Readiness Group (FRG) leader.

The battalion commander typically selects a family for nomination for Family of the Year; then, the family needs the brigade commander's endorsement. The family nominated then must fill out a packet and interview with senior leaders at Fort Bragg.

One of the questions the Vona Family was asked was to pick a word that describes their family.

Their word was "teamwork."

"One thing I think that we do really well in our marriage is work together for like everything. So, Sam is very involved with our family, and I'm very involved in his unit and what he has going on. I would like to say that we're very interchangeable at home, and I'm really thankful for that," Kristen Vona said. "I just think we work really, really well together. And people have commented on that like friends and like within the military community, people have commented on how much we're on the same page and really work together well."

Fort Bragg announced the Family of the Year at the annual Tree Lighting on the installation, Dec. 3. Capt. Vona said that he expected to be in the top five families, but not the family of the year.

"They announced the top five guys going from five, four, three, two. And I was kind of surprised that we weren't in the top five. I figured that's where we would be," Capt. Vona said. "So, I was a little surprised when they announced number two, and I was like, OK, well, I guess we didn't make the top five tough competition out here. And then they announced us, and we were totally shocked."

They said their five-year-old daughter, Presley, loved the applause they received.

"They handed her the trophy, and she held it up in the air for a picture," Kristen Vona laughed as she told the story.

For the family, the entire experience has been humbling.

"It was a really big honor. It's been a long time of putting in a lot of hard work towards the unit, not even just the one we're in now, but previous units we've been in, and so it's just really awesome to be recognized for the work we have put in," Kristen Vona said. "We're just super honored to be selected. So, it was very humbling."