HARKER HEIGHTS, Texas — Two Mountain View Elementary School students were given the best gift Monday: their Dad.
U.S. Army Chaplain Patrice Mbo made a surprise appearance during the school's lunch to see his kids.
He just returned home from a 9-month deployment in Syria with the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment.
Principal Randy Podhaski said it was a truly genuine reaction from the kids when they saw their Dad, and not a single eye was dry in the cafeteria that afternoon.
Podhaski said the Mbo family reached out about the surprise well in advance, and gave the school a deadline for when to be ready.
Assistant principal Amanda Slay was monitoring lunch like normal, then told Chaplain Mbo's boys to come up to the stage.
That's when the Army man made his presence felt, and his kids were ecstatic.
