{"id":220,"date":"2010-06-15T13:44:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-15T13:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/inspirationreport\/2010\/06\/father-returns-from-afghanistan-to-surprise-his-son.html"},"modified":"2010-06-15T13:44:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-15T13:44:00","slug":"father-returns-from-afghanistan-to-surprise-his-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/06\/father-returns-from-afghanistan-to-surprise-his-son.html","title":{"rendered":"Father Returns from Afghanistan to Surprise His Son"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>About a year ago, Derrin Austin, a father and former captain of the San Diego Fire Department, decided to serve his country by enrolling in the navy.<\/p>\n<p>He was immediately called&nbsp;for active&nbsp;duty in Afghanistan, which meant he had to leave behind his wife and his 7-year-old son, D&#8217;Andre.<\/p>\n<p>Even though Austin kept in touch with his son regularly via phone calls,&nbsp;they hadn&#8217;t seen each other for&nbsp;a year.&nbsp; One day, Austin&nbsp;was shocked when D&#8217;Andre asked if he enjoyed&nbsp;being&nbsp;at war&nbsp;more than being at home.&nbsp; Taking action, Austin requested 18 days of leave so he could head back to Escondido, California to surprise his son with a visit.<\/p>\n<p>Father and son had a heartfelt and touching reunion outside D&#8217;Andre&#8217;s school, just in time for Father&#8217;s Day weekend.&nbsp; Since D&#8217;Andre turns 8 in July, Austin had one of the two birthday gifts his son requested: a compass, to find his father when he was lost.&nbsp; Austin also gave his son 2 medals, saying, &#8220;You&#8217;re my hero.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><center>&nbsp;<embed name=\"PaperVideoTest\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" align=\"middle\" src=\"http:\/\/kswb.vid.trb.com\/player\/PaperVideoTest.swf\" width=\"300\" height=\"450\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" quality=\"high\" play=\"true\" loop=\"true\" scale=\"showall\" wmode=\"transparent\" devicefont=\"false\" bgcolor=\"#ffffff\" menu=\"true\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" flashvars=\"&amp;titleAvailable=true&amp;playerAvailable=true&amp;searchAvailable=false&amp;shareFlag=N&amp;singleURL=http:\/\/kswb.vidcms.trb.com\/alfresco\/service\/edge\/content\/1fefa0a3-648f-4190-9eff-aed0e1c7ba97&amp;propName=kswb.com&amp;hostURL=http:\/\/www.fox5sandiego.com&amp;swfPath=http:\/\/kswb.vid.trb.com\/player\/&amp;omAccount=tribglobal&amp;omnitureServer=fox5sandiego.com\" salign=\"l\"><\/center><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more about Derrin Austin and D&#8217;Andre:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fox5sandiego.com\/news\/kswb-reservist-surprises-son,0,2659675.story\">Fox 5 San Diego: Reservist Returns from Afghanistan for Surprise Visit<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About a year ago, Derrin Austin, a father and former captain of the San Diego Fire Department, decided to serve his country by enrolling in the navy. He was immediately called&nbsp;for active&nbsp;duty in Afghanistan, which meant he had to leave behind his wife and his 7-year-old son, D&#8217;Andre. Even though Austin kept in touch with&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-smile","category-happier-you"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Father Returns from Afghanistan to Surprise His Son<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/06\/father-returns-from-afghanistan-to-surprise-his-son.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Father Returns from Afghanistan to Surprise His Son\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"About a year ago, Derrin Austin, a father and former captain of the San Diego Fire Department, decided to serve his country by enrolling in the navy. He was immediately called&nbsp;for active&nbsp;duty in Afghanistan, which meant he had to leave behind his wife and his 7-year-old son, D&#8217;Andre. Even though Austin kept in touch with&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/06\/father-returns-from-afghanistan-to-surprise-his-son.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Inspiration Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-15T13:44:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"shuang\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Father Returns from Afghanistan to Surprise His Son","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2010\/06\/father-returns-from-afghanistan-to-surprise-his-son.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Father Returns from Afghanistan to Surprise His Son","og_description":"About a year ago, Derrin Austin, a father and former captain of the San Diego Fire Department, decided to serve his country by enrolling in the navy. He was immediately called&nbsp;for active&nbsp;duty in Afghanistan, which meant he had to leave behind his wife and his 7-year-old son, D&#8217;Andre. 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