When his son was just one month old, Matt Miller left on deployment.
“I was always worried about when he got back: Would our son know Matt?” said Jaclyn Miller, Matt’s wife. “I was so worried about maintaining that connection.”
The couple bought ten recordable books and every night, Jaclyn would play her husband’s voice to their son. Six months later, Matt returned from deployment as a surface warfare officer on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which at the time was homeported in Coronado.
Nervous, Jaclyn and her son, Mason, met Matt on the pier.
“When we picked him up, at first Mason felt stranger danger: Who is this guy?” Jaclyn said. “But then when Matt started talking, Mason smiled – he recognized Matt’s voice from every night when we would play those stories.”
The books worked for their son, but they were important for Jaclyn and Matt as well. They became a source of comfort for Jaclyn, who was navigating her first months as a parent alone, and they helped Matt feel connected to his family while he was away.
To add to the stress, this deployment coincided with early pandemic days, and his was the ship that famously faced a Covid-19 outbreak.
Their first deployment as parents, and time spent apart since, eventually led the experience to become a business, and on Aug. 1, the couple will launch UMBO My Hero Dolls.
The dolls include a recorder, which will allow service members to “read” to their children while away, played from a doll that looks like them. The Millers said it was important to them to get details such as uniform look and feel right, and they will be rolling out more customizable options in time.
The My Hero dolls exist under the umbrella of UMBO Books, which the couple founded first after being inspired by their son. Mason and Matt worked together on their first book, The Backwards Man, named for Mason’s habit of putting his clothes on incorrectly.
Eventually, UMBO Books grew into a mission to tell rich and engaging stories for military families, starting with their first military-focused book, My Daddy, MY SWO.
They’ve since expanded to titles such as My Mommy, My Marine and My Daddy, My Sailor, with plans for more. Families can also buy classic, recordable bedtime stories from the company’s bookstore.
Life moves quickly for military families, and since that first deployment, they welcomed another son. Matt is preparing for his department head tour, while Jaclyn, an audiologist, works with active duty Marines in San Diego.
What hasn’t changed is how much the dolls mean to their boys, and they want to share that connection with other military families.
“My youngest is 21 months old,” Jaclyn said. “He doesn’t understand why Matt’s gone, but he has the doll. It keeps the bond formed, it keeps the understanding that dad’s here, he’s still around.”
He smiles at it, calls it “Daddy,” and gives it big squeezes throughout the day. And when Matt calls, his sons recognize his voice.
Hayden, their younger son, was diagnosed with several eye muscle conditions at 15 months old. He needs prescription glasses that must be changed often – something that is not covered by TRICARE, the military’s health insurance.
That inspired the My Hero Fund: The Millers will donate 5% of their sales to a fund that will help military families access glasses and hearing aids through Support the Enlisted Project (STEP).
When I spoke to the Millers, Jaclyn was in San Diego, balancing full-time work with parenting. Matt was in Rhode Island, attending school for his upcoming department head tour.
As they speak, they’re quick to give one another credit: Jaclyn’s attention to detail yielded such realistic-looking uniforms; Matt’s creativity sparked an ever-growing list of ideas for future growth.
They speak, frankly, like a couple that has spent a lot of time apart and has learned the importance of communicating with one another for encouragement and support. It’s unsurprising, then, that they founded a company based on doing the same for military children and their active-duty parents.
The current product allows for up to an hour of recording, and service members who have access to Internet can email more stories throughout their time away. As the company grows, they want to fully customize their dolls, moving beyond hair color and to more specifics like freckles and glasses.
They also want to cater to as many military jobs as possible. Their own toddler is obsessed with the military and notices when other companies get details wrong. They want to make dolls and books focused on submarines, hospital ships, and more.
It’s a lot of late nights, they say, balancing two careers, two kids, and now, a business. But once the idea arose, it wasn’t a question of if; it was a question of how.
“This is too good to pass up,” Matt said. “I love it; there’s nothing in my life I’ve ever been so passionate about as creating what we’re creating. I think it’s going to be so cool – so while we may be busy, we’re just got to do it. We just have to figure it out.”
