By Tony Marrero, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, September 17, 2009
BROOKSVILLE FL
The blond girl in the back of the class was the last to look up when the soldier walked into Room 710 at Pine Grove Elementary School on Wednesday morning.
The 10-year-old fifth-grader sat hunched over her workbook, focused on a reading lesson.
The soldier, dressed in combat fatigues and desert boots, walked halfway across the room before the girl saw him coming.
"Daddy!" she shouted, jumping from her desk and into her father's arms. The tears flowed immediately. Her breathing came in little hiccups.
For a long minute, no one in Room 710 spoke. The principal and the teacher wiped their eyes.
Army Sgt. 1st Class Michael Spaulding put his daughter Brooke down, grabbed her hand and looked over at the teacher.
"Can I take her home?" he asked, smiling. "I'll let her come back tomorrow."
For Spaulding, it was one midday school surprise down, two to go.
• • •
For weeks, Tammy Spaulding had tried to keep the secret from the couple's three children.
Dad was coming home, not in March as expected, but in September. He had left in June for a yearlong tour in Afghanistan, and his 15-day leave had been pushed up.
They planned a surprise pickup at the children's respective schools. It would be an easy tour — Pine Grove Elementary, West Hernando Middle and Central High schools are next door to one another west of Brooksville.
"We talked in code for a month," said Pat Spaulding, Michael's mother, who was in on the plan. "We've been so careful."
Pat Spaulding was born and raised in Dunedin. Both sons were born and raised in Spring Hill. Son Paul Spaulding is in the Marines and will soon head to Afghanistan.
It took Michael Spaulding six days aboard helicopters, airplanes and a bus to get from his outpost in Afghanistan to Kandahar and then to Kuwait, Ireland and Atlanta before the final leg home to Weeki Wachee.
Spaulding recounted the trip to Lorna Lowe, assistant principal at West Hernando, as she escorted him to surprise his 12-year-old son, Brice, Wednesday morning. He walked hand in hand with Brooke. His wife and mother followed.
"I'll bet you'll enjoy the next 15 days," Lowe said.
"Every second of it," Spaulding replied.
• • •
The group cut across the gym through a cacophony of bouncing basketballs and shouting middle schoolers and headed for the weight room.
Coach Benny Martinez saw the uniformed man and his entourage and understood. He'd started to worry when the front office had called, asked about Brice and told him not to let the boy know they were coming for him.
"Brice, you have a visitor, son," Martinez said over the clanking weights, the odor of adolescent boys trying to get buff hanging in the air.
"Dad!" yelled the dirty-blond seventh-grader sporting a crew cut, dodging classmates and running to embrace Spaulding.
The weights stopped clanking. The kids stared. Brice, who plays left guard and defensive tackle for the school's football team, forgot about his game face and wiped tears.
"What I wouldn't give to hug my dad like that," Martinez said, then invited Sgt. Spaulding back to the school that afternoon to watch football practice.
• • •
At 39 years old and with 18 years of service under his belt, Spaulding is one of the old men of C Company, 5th Striker Brigade out of Fort Lewis, Wash.
He's on his first tour of Afghanistan and perhaps his last. He plans to retire in two years.
As a platoon leader, he has 45 men in his charge. Many are 18, 19, 20 years old.
"They're kids," he said.
In Afghanistan, the soldiers sleep on the ground. There is no running water and no electricity, though a generator arrived recently, Spaulding said.
He says he keeps the conversation vague when talking to his children about the danger there. When asked if the platoon comes under fire from Taliban forces, he just nods and says, "It's been busy. We've seen a little of everything."
Life as a commanding officer and a father means worry wherever you are. When Spaulding is over there, he worries about his children. When he's here, he worries about the men he left behind.
"I haven't stopped thinking about them since I left six days ago," he admits.
• • •
The surprise at Central High didn't quite go as planned.
Instead of walking into his daughter Brittany's geometry class, the teacher told Brittany to grab her things and come into the hallway.
The 15-year-old 10th-grader caught a glimpse of her grandmother, clearly emotional from the day's events, and feared the worst for her father.
"No, this isn't happening," she later recalled thinking. "Not now. Not ever."
Then she came into the hall and saw her dad.
Another hug, more tears. A couple of "awwws" and hand claps from students.
"I'm so happy I was here to witness this," one girl said.
• • •
For Brooke, the summer days were the most difficult after her father left. There was less to do, more time to worry about him, she said.
"We were just sitting there waiting for the day to be over," said Brooke, who plays baseball for the Rays, a West Hernando Little League team. "Now that school and sports have started, it just flies by."
They know Dad's vacation will too.
Brice has his first football game next week. He didn't think his father would make it to any of them.
"It's going to be awesome," Brice said.
Mom and Dad are going to Fort Myers for a deep sea fishing trip organized through Operation Open Arms, a nonprofit group that coordinates free trips for active duty military personnel on leave.
"It's my top three things: family, fishing and football," he said.
After Wednesday morning's family reunion, it was time for lunch.
After weeks of meals from cans, Spaulding had a request:
"Something fried and greasy."
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