'Military Child of the Year' Awards Honor Seven Teens from Seven Services

Lila Morgan has already accomplished her fair share, starting nonprofits, writing a book, and soon graduating college. She’s also only 18 years old.

Morgan, the daughter of an Army National Guard soldier, is one of seven teenagers being honored Thursday in the nation’s capital for not shying away from being military children but instead using the experience to better their own lives and those in their communities. All of the honorees are females.

The seven Operation Homefront’s 2026 Military Child of the Year Award recipients are praised for stepping into caregiving roles, navigating separation, and carrying added responsibility while their parents serve. Their impact has taken on additional meaning as the U.S. military has spread out internationally in recent weeks due to the ongoing war in the Middle East.

"It's an absolutely surreal feeling that I could not put into words,” Morgan, a senior at the University of South Florida, told Military.com. “We didn't necessarily choose to be a military children, but we chose to make something in our lives from it—to use adversity to propel and be more resilient individuals.”

Morgan, who grew up in California before moving to Tampa, Fla., at age 10, also called it a “blessing” to be honored among six other “amazing” females.

These are the seven 2026 honorees:

• Air Force: Elizabeth Stanton, 16, College Station, TX 

• Army: Amani Ambay, 19, Lutz, FL 

• Coast Guard: Victoria “Tori” Vanacore, 17, Kill Devil Hills, NC 

• Marine Corps: Hannah Kirksey, 17, Sneads Ferry, NC 

• National Guard: Lila Morgan, 18, Lithia, FL 

• Navy: Ayla Zook, 18, King George, VA 

• Space Force: Taylor Schreiner, 18, Colorado Springs, CO 

“The sacrifice of military service extends beyond the individual in uniform. At Operation Homefront, we are committed to ensuring every member of the military family feels valued and empowered,” Rear Admiral (Ret.) Alan Reyes, CEO of Operation Homefront, said in a statement shared with Military.com.

“The Military Child of the Year Award spotlights extraordinary young people who shoulder unique responsibilities and turn them into leadership and impact. These are not stories of success despite challenges; they are stories of success because of them.”

This year’s recipients as of late March 2026 moved a combined 35 times and lived through 255 months of deployments. They logged 4,849 volunteer hours in the 12 months before nominations.

They were selected from more than 1,000 nominees across the country.

“Our military families, they endure so many difficult situations, frequent moving, deployments,” Jenny Valderas, Operation Homefront’s senior director of family support services, told Military.com. “Our Military Child of the Year award really goes to highlight all the amazing achievements and accomplishments our military kids face as being part of a military child.”

Operation Homefront, based out of San Antonio, Texas, is a national nonprofit dedicated to building strong, stable and secure military and veteran families. Award recipients typically excel in education, leadership, volunteerism and extracurriculars.

All seven recipients are being honored April 23 at the Military Child of the Year Awards Gala in Arlington, Va., on April 23. Each will also receive a $10,000 grant, a laptop computer, and other donated gifts.

Father's Service 'Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me'

Anyone can nominate a military child, Valderas said, saying that Operation Homefront received submissions from community members, teachers and next-door neighbors, etc.

In Morgan’s case, she has no idea who nominated her. But her resume speaks for itself.

She grew up in Auburn, Calif., in proximity to the Sierra Nevada mountains prior to moving to the Tampa area when she was 10.

Her father was a Marine while living in California, leaving the service when she was born. When Lila was 11, her father, 38, reenlisted in the Army National Guard. She said that when he reenlisted, it was the "best thing that ever happened in my life" and gave her a sense of identity and community and “showed what it means to reframe and change your life at a moment's notice.”

It wasn’t just the location changes but the advice her father provided that set her up for success.

She told Military.com that while her dad was on a one-year deployment, she began taking high school courses while in middle school.

"I actually started college before I started high school,” she said, adding she later sat in college classrooms before high school.

She was doing dual enrollment, attained all necessary credits to graduate. But after discussing her future with her parents, all found it conducive for her to stay in high school and grow as an individual.

She took AP courses and recalled that during her sophomore or junior year, she and her father had discussions about education, how the world works, and her life ambitions.

Morgan’s list of accolades continued to grow. She attained over 8,300 community service hours the past four years. She was a captain in her ROTC unit. She worked with different volunteer organizations, is involved with her synagogue, was a cadet in Civil Air Patrol, helped lead a female empowerment community service campaign.

She said her passion to help was instilled from her parents, who had her volunteering with different organizations "since I could stand up.” She remembered being age 6 and volunteering at a 5k centered on youth substance abuse.

Years later, she founded a youth prevention program for young adults aged 11-18 called “I Choose to Be Drug Free,” essentially a youth internship program and run by high school students and mentored by college students.

"I'm young, I'm 18, but I've done a lot,” she said, adding that she wrote a book, Becoming Undeniable, being published in the next few weeks.

She is taking a gap year before law school, with plans to study in Israel for a year and better learn the culture and become fluent in Hebrew. She’s been accepted into American University for a dual program in public policy and law.

Her career goal is to become an Army JAG officer.

'Every Military Child Has a Story to Tell'

This is the 18th year that awards have been doled out to seven teens—each of which represents a different service.

“When the service member serves, the family serves as well, and that includes our military children,” Valderas said. “This award really goes to honor and recognize them for the amazing contributions that they provide to their local communities and the impact that they make in the short time that they have in the communities that they're living in.”

The honorees are selected by a volunteer panel of judges who, according to Valderas, look at leadership qualities, academic accomplishments, achievements on competitiveness, extracurricular activities, community and volunteer work, and “just the overall story of the military child.”

Every military child has a story to tell, and every story is different. So, they look at the overall story of the nomination that's submitted on behalf of that child.

Valderas has been with Operation Homefront for 13 years. This year’s crop of awardees wowed the judges, she said.

“They have displayed a dedication to excellence in their school, in their clubs and sports, and in their volunteerism,” she said. “They've really demonstrated the resiliency of a military child, and they've really tried to be integrated into their local communities—and all at the same time maintaining academic excellence. 

“It’s been amazing to see this year's awardees. The judges really, really had a really good group of kids to pick from.”