School Stage Becomes A Place Where Sergeant And Daughter Share A Hug

In this video, a heartwarming moment is captured between a member of the United States military, Sergeant John Tanner, and his young daughter, Audrey Tanner. He had been deployed overseas in Afghanistan for a period of three hundred and eight consecutive days. On average, a Sergeant in the American military system will deploy to conflict zones (Korea, Afghanistan, Bosnia, etc.) in a range from six to eighteen months, depending on the assigned mission they are given.

It starts by showing a teacher and two children on a stage in front of what sounds like a crowd of other people. The teacher points out the youngest child’s shirt which has glittery words on it and reads it aloud into a microphone for the crowd to hear. The little girls’ shirt says “I have waited three-hundred and eight long days for this”. The teacher plays it off as a joke and says “for what, Friday?”, as the little girl has no idea that her father will be surprising her.

The surprise took place at an assembly in Oklahoma state at Sand Springs Public School (Northwoods Fine Arts Academy), who helped plan this surprise. The moment Sergeant John Tanner walked onto the stage behind the little girl, out of camera view, you can still tell from the surprised and delighted sounds the crowd makes. His daughter notices the crowd’s reaction and turns around to see what they are looking at, and sees her father’s face with a huge smile plastered on it. She recognizes him within seconds and he opens his arms to hold her in a warm embrace as the crowd cheers, witnessing their very emotional show.

The teacher walks away from the stage and the other older child also leaves the stage, letting them have their joyous moment with each other. This is just one of the many examples of how heart-wrenching it can be for families and couples to go through the process of being separated for such a length of time, and then reunited. The sacrifices military members make to serve and protect the United States of America is truly immense. Not only do they sacrifice their time, but they also put their lives on the line and risk their physical and mental health. Yes, even their mental health can be affected. Many ex-soldiers suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). This is an underestimated issue amongst ex-military, where they can usually physically heal, but never completely mentally heal from the stress and horrors they had endured through war.

It is a blessing that Sergeant John Tanner came back from his international deployment in Afghanistan in one piece, safe and sound, ready to finally see his little girl again after what most likely seemed like forever to both him and his family and friends. Videos like this should remind us of how grateful we should be towards the men and women who leave their families and loved ones behind for months and even years with no guaranteed return, in order to protect us.