How A Small Town Girl’s Heart Made Room For Her Among Royalty

Tonya McGough moved effortlessly from one call to another. 

“We were discussing some spreadsheets and wrapping up our conversation,” she explained as she took the latest call in what had already been a busy Friday.

But McGough’s days are always busy…filled with scheduling, motivating and hugging.

“Yes, I’m a hugger,” she said. “Every morning I come in and hug the staff, and some people don’t want to hug so I tap them on the shoulder. Now, we’ve got this thing 12 hugs a day. It’s about joy.”

And a hug coupled with joy goes a long way in her line of work.  

McGough serves as the Air Force Wounded Warrior Caregiver and Family Support Program Manager. She sees more examples of resilience and courage in a day than most people witness all year . Most Americans witness the fierce determination and unmatched motivation of recovering warriors while watching adaptive sports competitions.

“In February we are going to Air Force trials,” McGough said. “And that includes 250 athletes trained in adaptive sports and rehabilitation. Fifty spouses or caregivers from the Caregiver and Family Support program will attend.”

While the warriors are training for wheelchair basketball, track and field events, caregivers will have their own training. McGough and her staff will invite experts who specialize in Post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and other challenges  so “caregivers can understand what they’re going through.” And the Air Force provides services to help caregivers relax, refresh and “take a break.”

Where it all began

McGough’s devotion to the Air Force began 31years ago when she married a young airman, Carlos McGough, from her hometown, Fordyce, Arkansas. Although their mothers were friends, years passed before the two began dating. 

“My junior year was the year was when the connection was made,” McGough said. “One day we happened to be over there [at his mother’s house] getting our majorette outfits done, and he happened to come through the kitchen, and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh!'”

They didn’t start dating, but it was only a matter of time. Then there was another chance meeting.

McGough recalled, ‘We started talking, and we hit it off. When he signed up to go in the military … he said he could not see us being apart.” 

“He went in the military to basic, and the entire time he was planning our wedding along with his mom and my mom. He asked my parents for my hand and then flew me to North Dakota and we got married in that year.”

Two daughters and a military career later, they are still lovestruck. McGough said she had “saved every love letter they wrote” during her husband’s deployments. 

“He’s been such a blessing to me,” McGough stated, “I think it’s just God laying his hands on us — being blessed by our families and traveling all over the world and seeing relationships and learning what not to do. Sometimes I still look at my life and say, ‘Is it true…is it really true?'”

It is true

Moody Air Force Base in Georgia provided the on ramp for McGough’s inspiring success in the Air Force’s civilian ranks. 

With her husband in Guam and her small children at home, she worked as a secretary at the Airman and Family Readiness Center, helping with a range of support programs. She was also studying to complete college. Day after day she demonstrated the emotional fortitude often found in military spouses, and it impressed her supervisor, Ann Lukens.

“She didn’t become just a boss, she became like family to me,” McGough said. “She would work around my schedule to make sure I took day classes and not have to be away from my girls at night. I could not have made it without her.”

Lukens eventually played a pivotal role in McGough’s graduation plans.  

McGough shared, “When I got close to graduation, money wasn’t the greatest back then and I was struggling with the last two classes. She said, ‘How much time do we have, kiddo?’ I said, ‘I have to wait a semester.'”

Lukens and her husband stepped in and offered to pay for the final classes as a graduation gift. After graduation, Lukens promoted McGough.

McGough pointed out, “That’s when the doors started opening … I started learning about wounded warriors and that’s when the initial project came to find out the loopholes as to why our warriors were falling through the cracks.”

She was a member of that initial team tasked with understanding the underlying reasons warriors were struggling once they returned from their tours of duty, and she excelled, receiving awards for her work.

When her husband decided to retire in 2009, they relocated to Texas where McGough continued her work with wounded warriors. By then, she and her colleagues had fine tuned the training programs for adaptive sports competitions. They oversaw the training and sporting events designed to select the “best of the best” from the Air Force to compete in the U.S. Armed Forces Warrior Games. By 2014 the elite athletes were traveling internationally to participate in the Invictus Games founded by Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, who served 10 years in the military, rose to the ranks of Captain and served two tours in Afghanistan.

‘My heart just melts every time’

McGough has seen the despair warriors experience during recovery. And more importantly, she has been privy to their triumphant turnarounds.

“I’m excited because when they first come to us, they’re afraid. And once they get used to us. They’re like, ‘OMG, I didn’t know this existed.’ Sometimes they think they’ll never be able to work again or play sports again … and then they see they can compete.”

“I feel like it’s a service to God when you care for his people,” she emphasized. “Those warriors have a hole in their heart because those who have fallen are sometimes forgotten, and they hold the guilt, ‘Why did my friend die and I didn’t.’ We tell them, ‘Your job is to keep living — you have so much to give.'”

And that faith and commitment have placed McGough in circles she never dreamt she find herself. Prince Harry and former soccer superstar David Beckham are two of the famous people she has worked with to promote the bravery of wounded warriors.

“It adds excitement for the warriors to receive medals from Prince Harry,” she said. “I’m not a celebrity. I just meet a lot of people.”

From presidents to princes to the protectors of America’s freedom, Tonya McGough puts “her heart into everything she does.” That’s how the Air Force Association described her when she was selected as one of its ’70 for 70′ — a nod to its years of service. Yet amid her numerous awards, McGough has never forgotten what she believes is her purpose.

She said, “I’ve been in this particular field and it’s taken me all over the world, looking at the miracles that God is doing every day through these warriors.”