Soldier Surprises Son by Photobombing Him on School Picture Day

Yahoo Parenting
Updated

Corporal James Bass seems like one of those super playful dads who is always kidding around with his family. Just watch what he does in this tearjerking military homecoming video, which has racked up more than 522,000 views since it was posted to YouTube on Saturday.

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After returning from a months-long deployment to Kuwait, the army dad gave his 8-year-old son Joshua the shock of his life by showing up at his Durham, North Carolina school on picture day. As Joshua posed in the gym, his dad snuck up behind him and photobombed the shot.

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Joshua, unaware that his father was present, was then shown the picture. He immediately turned around and the two bear-hugged like crazy. “You still got it!” Joshua told his dad happily. To pull that surprise off so flawlessly, he sure does.

That video is not the only brilliantly played military homecoming clip that’ll make you reach for the tissues. One air force mom from San Antonio who had been in Kuwait for eight months made a surprise visit to her 13-year-old son’s middle school basketball game, in a video posted to YouTube in January 2014 that’s since received more than 4 million views.

In the footage, Lt. Col. Cotina Jenkins-Sellers works the surprise perfectly. While son Derrick tries to make a free throw, Jenkins-Sellers who is standing behind him, suddenly says, “That’s all right, Derrick.” Shocked, Derrick turns around, sees his mom, runs across the gym, then falls to the floor in tears. 

And last December, 4-year-old Gabriel Gallardo of Rancho Cordova, CA got the best Christmas present ever. His mom, Sharlene, who’d been serving overseas in the navy for almost 10 months, made a surprise appearance at a school assembly with the help of Gabriel’s principal, who invited other parents and local media. As his mom walked through the gym toward Gabriel, the preschooler practically flew into her embrace.

As thrilled as Gabriel clearly was to hug his mom again, Sharlene Gallardo was just as overcome with emotion. “I was trying to calm myself, saying ‘Just breathe, it’s just your son, he’s still your little boy,” she told Yahoo Parenting at the time. “As soon as I saw him, it was like my heart exploded in my chest. I just had to grab him. It was a homecoming that I’ll never forget.”

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