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Shaw Soldier returns from overseas, surprises daughter

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Krystal M. Jeffers
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
Airman 1st Class Krystal M. Jeffers --  A U.S. Army soldier surprised her daughter, Dejsha Tatum, at the Sumter Christian School, S.C., after returning from a eight month deployment, April 16.

The morning of the surprise, Maj. Laura Byrd, Third Army/U.S. Army Central research analyst, and her daughter talked on the phone, Tatum asked, "When are you coming home?"

Tatum wanted her mother home by April 29, which was Byrd's birthday, so they could celebrate both of their birthdays at the same time, Tatum said.

Members of the school and Third Army/ARCENT worked together to arrange the surprise with the guise that they were gathering to honor the Month of the Military Child.

Byrd, who has been a single mother for 11 years, had been deployed to Kuwait for eight months which was the longest time she had been a part from Tatum.

The deployment was originally supposed to last six months, but it was extended to eight months and during that time Byrd missed Tatum's 15th birthday in February.

When the students gathered in the sanctuary to meet members of Third Army/ARCENT, they were introduced to a 'special guest.'

When Byrd entered the room from backstage as the special guest, Tatum jumped excitedly and her hands covered her mouth in surprise. Tears fell from her eyes as she embraced her mother.
 
Teachers and fellow students even began to cry.

"She had been gone for so long, and it had felt so empty," Tatum said.

She said she was so happy that, "if it was on a scale from one to ten, then it would be more than 9,000."

Tatum wasn't the only one who was happy.

"(When I saw her) I was elated and was thinking 'this is unbelievable,'" Byrd said. "I had no one to greet me at the airport, but it is worth it all to surprise her."

Byrd planned on surprising her mother and grandmother next who were also unaware of Byrd's return.