It was the moment young Jake Rogers had been longing for.
"[I haven't seen him] since April," said Rogers.
Monday morning, he joined hundreds of happy families on the tarmac at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, waiting for a very special plane to arrive. He could hardly contain himself as he proudly waved a handmade poster and an American flag.
"I'm extremely excited," said Rogers. "Literally."
His father, Staff Sergeant Joshua Rogers, was on board that plane -- one of 222 Airmen and women from the 301st Fighter Wing returning home from a three-month deployment to Afghanistan.
Cheers erupted when the plane landed -- and got even louder as the men and women on board began filing out of it.
Rogers made a few passes through the crowd before he spotted his dad. But when he did, he immediately jumped into his arms and hugged him. Tears were pouring down his face.
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"It was amazing," said Joshua Rogers. "I wasn’t expecting to see my son. I was thinking I was going to have to see him in a couple of days. So when I saw him out here it was a complete surprise. I’m just blown away. The excitement is incredible.”
That joy was contagious. Every direction you looked, there were only smiles.
“You know the time that our airmen spend away from their families is time they can’t recapture," said Colonel John Breazeale, Commander of the 301st Fighter Wing. "But they’re great patriots and they love serving their country.”
Now, Staff Sergeant Rogers is focused on making up for that lost time with his son -- who already has some ideas about what they should do.
"I want to do whatever I can [with my dad]," said Rogers. "A Cowboys game?"
