Achille Elementary students Braidon and Zachary Walson said they didn’t suspect a thing when they went to their weekly assembly Friday morning honoring military children.
The boys said it was awesome to see their dad who had been deployed to Korea for the past year with the US Air Force.
The boys had not realized that their father, Aaron Walson, had returned home the night before. The boys were told it would be a few more weeks before their father was home.
The boys’ mother, Lacy Walson, had gotten together with the school to surprise her sons when her husband told her of his arrival date.
Lacy and Arron have surprised their sons before with Arron’s arrival home and the boys had told their mother they would like to be surprised at school.
“How am I going to do that?” Lacy Walson said she had asked herself. She said that things just fell into place for this surprise.
April is the month of the Military Child and Friday just so happened to be Purple Up Day. Purple is the color that represents military children.
Lacy hatched a plan with Achille Elementary Principal James Todd to surprise her sons and honor all of the military children and parents at Achille Elementary as well.
Lacy sent her three sons Braidon, Zachary and A.J. to their grandparents’ house Thursday night, claiming that she was going to Dallas with friends.
“I should have known Mom was getting Dad when she said she was going to Dallas,” said the oldest son Braidon.
At the end of the morning assembly, all military children and parents were asked to come to the front of the auditorium.
This is when the boys were surprised to see their father among the other parents coming to the front. Lacy said it had been a tough year for her family.
She and her sons had moved to Achille to be close to her family while her husband was away. The family had originally thought that Arron would be home at the beginning of April.
April 4 marked one year of deployment for Arron, but no orders were given for his return home.
“That was hard day,” said Lacy.
When Arron told Lacy last Friday when he would be home, she quickly devised a plan to surprise them.
“I like surprising the boys,” said Arron.
“I’m just glad to be home. It’s a lot better to see them in person,” said Arron, who had been communicating with his family through software such as Skype.
The family will move on to the next base and continue on. Arron will be stationed in South Dakota next month where his family can join him.
“We’re going to miss them. They’re part of our school,” said Todd.
Todd said he is glad for the boys to have their dad back though.
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