{"id":49701,"date":"2014-03-13T13:52:57","date_gmt":"2014-03-13T20:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=49701"},"modified":"2019-02-07T14:27:02","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T22:27:02","slug":"a-major-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2014\/03\/13\/a-major-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"A \u2018Major\u2019 surprise!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BGjN8naSUmw?rel=0\" height=\"360\" width=\"640\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>ACTON \u2013 There was not a dry eye at the Meadowlark Elementary assembly Monday when Major <strong>Kevin Van Stone<\/strong> walked on stage to surprise his son, Austin.<\/p>\n<p>The United States Air Force Major returned home, after months of deployment in Afghanistan, and headed to the school for an emotional reunion with his fourth grade son.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_49703\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49703\" style=\"width: 238px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Major-Kevin-Van-Stone.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-49703\" alt=\"Maj. Kevin Van Stone, 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, surprised his son Austin at a local elementary school Monday, after months of deployment in Afghanistan.  (U.S. Air Force photo )\" src=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Major-Kevin-Van-Stone-238x300.jpg\" width=\"238\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Major-Kevin-Van-Stone-238x300.jpg 238w, https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Major-Kevin-Van-Stone.jpg 384w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 238px) 100vw, 238px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-49703\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Maj. Kevin Van Stone, 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, surprised his son Austin at a local elementary school Monday, after months of deployment in Afghanistan. (U.S. Air Force photo )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Austin and his dad usually communicated through FaceTime calls while dad was deployed. Unfortunately for Austin, his dad\u2019s orders kept getting changed, so dad was delayed in getting home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe decided that we would surprise [Austin] by having a special phone call and a FaceTime with his dad, but his dad was here,\u201d said Meadowlark Elementary School Principal Kim Tredick.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, March 10, the school\u2019s fourth and fifth grade classes gathered for an assembly to discuss the Medal of Honor Character Program. At the end of the assembly, Principal Tredick asked if anyone knew a \u201cMajor Van Stone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Austin spoke up, and took the stage to take the FaceTime call. During the call, out walked dad!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWords can\u2019t describe the kind of experience that we all had,\u201d Tredick said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough on our kids when they don\u2019t have their parents with them; and to see the pure joy of this boy\u2019s reaction, it just really took everybody\u2019s breath away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>View the emotional video above.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ACTON \u2013 There was not a dry eye at the Meadowlark Elementary assembly Monday when Major Kevin Van Stone walked on stage to surprise his son, Austin. The United States Air Force Major returned home, after months of deployment in Afghanistan, and headed to the school for an emotional reunion with his fourth grade son. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1492,29],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}