SAN ANTONIO -- There's nothing worse than being away from family during the holidays, but when you're in the military, there's no way to avoid missing a few of those days.

To ease the stress of the separation from family, the U.S. Air Force has been relying on kindhearted San Antonians to open their homes up to give thousands of young trainees a nice home cooked meal on Thanksgiving.

Tony Martinez, a retired Airman, has been participating in Operation Homecooking for 20 years. On Thursday morning, Martinez picked up two trainees at Lackland Air Force Base and took them to his Northwest Side home to spend the holiday with his family.

Martinez said that he had one simple rule for the trainees when they arrive -- relax.

"I let them use the phone and computer to contact family. They get online, relax, get comfortable, take their shoes off and I let them do whatever they want," Martinez said.

This year, Martinez and his family spent the day with trainees Tabitha Wade of South Dakota and Rachel Erickson-Vollhaber of Wisconsin.

For Wade, this was her first Thanksgiving away from home. Back home in Sioux Falls, her husband and 11-month-old son were having a family feast without her. Being invited into another family's home made her a little better.

"They're a lot like my family," Wade said. "It's loud, lots of noise, lots of food and they're really friendly."

While the trainees certainly got their share of turkey and all the trimmings, they couldn't go hog wild. On Friday, the women must complete their seven week evaluation, which requires several physical fitness tests.

"When we go back tonight there will be more stress," Erickson-Vollhaber said. "Probably ... exercises just to work off all the calories and fat we just consumed."

Until then, the young women were just happy to enjoy some home cooking and good conversation with new friends.

"I think it's really touching that they open their homes to complete strangers like us," Wade said. "They have no idea who we are, and we don't know who they are, and now we feel a part of their family."