“I am the youngest to be active military and the first thing I did out of basic and airborne school was deploy. I didn’t get a chance to go home after any of my graduations and went straight to Afghanistan to catch up to my unit for a 6 month combat deployment. I told my mother I wouldn’t be home for the holidays. We got back earlier than expected and was a flight home December 8th. I’m the baby of the family and my mothers biggest fear is me deploying much like any other mothers out there. She was heartbroken when I told her I couldn’t come home for Christmas so I made it my top priority to come home to her. I had my brother and my girlfriend surprise her. The idea was to have my brother take her my grandfather flag from his military funeral service so she could hang up and after they walked inside with her having absolutely no idea what other gift she would get, I snuck up to the front door and gave her a Christmas gift none of us ever would have thought possible.”- Michael Gonzales
