He was on the USS California in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean when Commander Ron Ritter got word about the emergency back home. His youngest daughter had suffered a severe eye injury. Ron had to get home fast.
There was no time to lose. He caught a helicopter ride from the USS California to the USS Nimitz. From there he caught another ride, this time on an F14, landing in Puerto Rico.
He was planning to get a commercial flight to Norfolk, but his heart sank. He realized, to his shock and embarrassment, that he’d forgotten his wallet. There he was, stranded in Puerto Rico with no ID and no money. What in the world was he going to do?
Just then, he spotted a USO office in the airport, and inside, there just happened to be a Society volunteer. He went straight to that Society volunteer and explained what was going on. “Within a couple of hours,” Ron says, “I was on a plane. The Society paid for my ticket to get me to Norfolk.” Ron made it home to be there for his daughter during her surgery. “The Society made that happen,” he says. “I’ll never forget that.”
This is why Ron, in addition to his annual donations, has given a very generous gift, a charitable gift annuity, to support the Society’s work for years to come. But how did Ron – someone who never planned on a career in the military – end up on the USS California in the first place? For that, we need to go back to the Vietnam era.
Ron went to college on a basketball scholarship, graduating in 1967. The war in Vietnam was raging. The draft was on. “I got recruited by the Navy,” he says. He went to Officer Candidate School and became a supply officer working in logistics. “I figured I’d be assigned to a ship in Norfolk that never got underway,” he says, laughing, “and basically play basketball for three years.”
Eight months later, Ron got a surprise – orders to a River Patrol Boat Squadron in Vietnam. Ron and his fiancé moved up their wedding plans and got married two weeks before he shipped out.
He spent the next year going on patrol in that war-torn country, constantly in danger. “I grew up a lot in that year,” he says. “And in the meantime, our oldest daughter had been born. When I came home, suddenly I had a family.”
Considering his options, Ron and his wife decided he would stay in the Navy. So his next deployment was to the submarine base in New London, Connecticut, where he worked in the supply department. Then the Navy decided he should go to sea, so he spent three years on a submarine.
After that, he got orders to Washington, D.C., and then to a nuclear cruiser, the USS California. He moved his family to Virginia, and served on the California as a supply officer. That’s where he was when he got the news about his daughter.
“The Society did everything possible to help,” he says. “And it was incredible how fast they got it done. I’m just glad that a Society volunteer was in the airport USO office that day.”
In addition to that firsthand experience with the Society, Ron had lots of occasions to refer the Sailors under his command to the Society. “I had several crewmembers working for me who had problems,” he says, “particularly coming back from deployment.”
After a nine-month deployment at sea, many Sailors returned home to overdue bills, creditors, and even houses emptied out by spouses who had left. “I would tell them, ‘Here’s who helped me. Go see the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society,’” Ron says. “And the Society always helped them – always.”
That’s why Ron has given his generous gift. “Sure, I get annual payments and a tax break,” he says, “but ultimately the Society gets funding to help Sea Service members and their families. That’s what this is about. That’s the reason to give.”
You can see – this is personal for him. He wants to help make sure that a Sailor or Marine who gets into a situation like he did can get help. “I will never forget what the Society did for me and my family,” he says, “and with this gift, I just want to help make sure the Society can do that for other Sailors and Marines too. Because, now and always, we take care of our own.”