Sergeant Michael Diehl comes home from Baghdad just in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family and plans a special surprise for his six-year old daughter Kaylee who attends Schweitzer Elementary school.
What he doesn’t know is that everyone at the school had a surprise in store for him too.
His surprise starts with a heroes welcome with the sidewalk filled to the brim with school employees and members of the community cheering him on as he sees a big banner above the door that says “Welcome Home Sergeant Deihl.”
The moment Kaylee sees her dad after nine months away is stunned by his presence but her smile says it all. She quickly walks right into his embrace and all is right with the world.
His surprise included banners hung throughout the school and songs sang just for him.
I had no idea any of this was even happening. I’m just happy to see my kids. I haven’t seen them in over nine months,” Sgt. Michael Diehl tells WJBK.
After nine months away Sgt. Diehl is just happy to home with his family, even if it is for just a few days. He returns home Sunday but is grateful he will get to spend Thanksgiving with the kids.
“We’re going to go get some ice cream, then just do whatever the kids want to do today,” Sgt. Diehl said.
Ashley Diehl expresses the emotional and exciting homecoming, “We are truly blessed that we got him home, and not everybody gets those happy homecomings so it’s very exciting.”
Sergeant Diehl wants to thank everyone involved in his heroes welcome.
“Thank you to the school and everyone who came out, our family; it means a lot,” Ashley says.
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