C-130 Flightline Homecoming
This C-130 flightline homecoming saw a dad meeting his son for the first time!
Imagine this: You return to San Diego - your adopted home - after a year away. In that time, you had a daughter, got to live on the east coast for the first time, enjoyed time together with your husband in your first year of marriage, with him in a non-deploying billet.
You find out you’re returning to San Diego and get pregnant with your second child, a little boy. But as it usually does, the Marine Corps has other plans, and your husband finds out he’s deploying, missing the birth of your son.
Your community - one you built and grew from years living in San Diego before you met your husband - rallies behind you, but every day is hard. There are so many tears, so many lonely nights. Your son is born and all you can think about is that first moment your husband holds him.
Then finally, it’s here. You see the planes fly overhead and you’re giddy with relief. As the plane disembarks and you see him for the first time, your daughter, still grasping your finger with her small hand, starts to giggle. Your husband bends down, opens his arms wide, and she toddles into them. You gingerly hand over your son. And that moment, with your daughter in one arm and your son in the other, is one you’ll never forget. Because how could you? All of the dark nights, all of the anguish, led to this.
Sydney and I - coworkers in a past life - started dating our now husbands within months of each other, and watching this beautiful family grow has been beautiful. Their first homecoming together was my second ever, and I’m so grateful to know such wonderful souls.