Then there's this whole other side. A somber side, that I don't like to wrap my brain around but I'm going to go there all because of a show on Lifetime...damn Lifetime. Tonight is the premiere of "Coming Home" a show where soldiers surprise family members upon their return from deployment. Lots of tears. Lots of happiness. Lots of smiles. Our current post is seeing a lot of returning soldiers and so Lifetime camped out for a while filming some of the soldiers returns and whatnot. From what I understand, you had to apply to be on the show and then it went from there. And I'm 100% that those who applied and got selected are glad that they did it, but for me, "Coming Home" is a bit much. And Army Guy's homecoming made it a bit much for me.
See, Army Guy didn't really have set plans for a return--it was pretty much "here's your release, good luck..." The first flight out of county was a Hero Flight, a flight with a Fallen Soldier. So while my Army Guy is bouncing out of country early, there's a family somewhere getting the worse news ever. He said it was an incredibly somber flight for all on the plane...rightfully so. Then his entry point into the States was at Dover where they were performing 3 Dignified Transfers on a Saturday. 3 Fallen home for in an unanticipated way. 3 families who had visions of different welcome home ceremonies/events. 3 families who don't get the Lifetime opportunity.
When we went to pick Army Guy up from airport, I didn't tell the kiddos who we were picking up, I just said I had a friend flying in late. My usually insanely inquisitive kids didn't seem to ask too many questions-"have we met your friend before, where is your friend staying, why can't your friend be here before 10:30pm?". I answered as vaguely as possible and off we went to pick up "my friend" from the airport well after their bedtime. And so in an effort not to tip the kiddos off, we waited patiently (some more then others...cough*Thing2*cough) by baggage claim. And I recorded the kiddos with my camera in an attempt to capture the fact that I could actually surprise them. So as people finally start coming down the escalators, I see boots. And then ACUs. And I'm watching kiddos who are watching the same boots and ACUs and not having any reaction to them and I start panicking. "Crap! What if the kids don't recognize him? What if they're all like 'oh hey dad, we're waiting on mom's friend...' What if they say 'Dad! Why are you home?'" and at just that moment, Thing 1 recognizes it's Army Guy, yells "DADDY!" and takes off and I just laughed and for a brief moment we were the only ones in the airport.
But those are also moments that I never once take for granted. Those are moments that I know I'm lucky to have. Those are moments that I know families of Fallen Soldiers would give anything to have and that makes those moments all the more precious and private to me.
Even if we are standing in the middle of a crowded airport.
