Christmas surprise: U.S. Army father away on duty shows up to son’s 1st-grade class

MILLINGTON, Tenn. (WMC/Gray News) - Many families with loved ones in the military spend the holidays thousands of miles apart.

Sometimes those miles can be crossed, and one first grader in Tennessee’s holiday is a little brighter with his father back home.

Langston Kelly attends Millington Primary School. At the age of 3 years old, Langston was diagnosed with Leukemia.

Langston’s mom Kendra Kelly said getting the diagnosis followed by the treatment plan was hard for the family.

“But it brought us closer together as a family,” she said.

Langston underwent treatments at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. His dad Cpt. Travis Kelly was there for most of the treatments but was deployed to Korea earlier this year with the U.S. Army.

Langston video called his dad when he rang the bell, signaling his cancer was in remission.

“With technology, you send the videos, you send the pictures. We send a lot of letters and buy a lot of stamps because my kids like to send a lot of letters,” Travis Kelly said.

Langston was excited about a Christmas celebration that was planned for Tuesday, but he had no idea there would be a bigger surprise.

With American flags waving, his class waited for a special guest.

Langston was shocked to see his dad walk through the classroom door. He was so shocked that he hesitated to hug him.

Langston later told WMC he wanted to follow directions and not get out of his seat before his teacher said it was OK.

Travis Kelly has served in the Army for 13 years and has been in Korea since April.

“When you come, they are just like, ‘Alright, I got my dad back and I got two parents. Let’s ride bikes and play outside,’ that’s all they care about,” he said.

Langston said he’s ready to play video games with his dad because that is what he missed most.

“He didn’t get to play games with me. He really didn’t get that much time to hang out with me,” the first-grader said.

Kelly also surprised his daughter in fourth grade and his other son in kindergarten.

He will be home for about 20 days before going back to Korea.

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