Soldier father surprises 5-year-old daughter at school

Published 12:15 am Saturday, January 7, 2012

Five-year-old Bellamy Bailey hardly knew what to do when her father, Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Bailey of the U.S. Army Reserve’s 412th Theater Engineer Command, walked into her kindergarten classroom Friday, fresh from the war zone in Afghanistan.

“It’s the first time in her whole life that she’s been quiet,” said her mother, Jessica Bailey, after Bellamy got over her shock, got up and ran to her daddy.

Brandon Bailey has been in Afghanistan since April, and though Bellamy knew her father was due home on leave, she did not know when. He and his wife, Jessica, arranged the surprise with Bellamy’s teacher, Lori Tzotzolas, principal Mary Arledge and the staff of St. Francis Xavier Elementary.

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Sitting on the floor with her classmates, Bailey just stared up at her father.

“Speechless,” Tzoltzolas said. “I’ve never seen her speechless.”

Tzoltzolas reminded the class, “Bellamy’s daddy has been gone a long, long time.”

“He’s fighting in the war,” said a classmate, Austin Norwood.

Brandon Bailey is in his second overseas deployment with the 412th. He spent all of 2008 with the command in Iraq. This visit home is a just short R&R, as he has to return in a couple of weeks to Afghanistan, where he serves with future operations facilitating the travel of engineers and support staff in and out of the country, he said.

“I’m just going to relax, mainly, and check out the house,” he said of the leave.

But Bellamy has a few other things planned.

“It’s great,” she said of his return. “I want us to play soccer ball like I do sometimes with him when he’s home.”

She’s also anticipating more surprises, since it seems Christmas is not quite over for the Baileys.

“She went to see Santa Claus and asked him if he would wait to come until her daddy got home,” Jessica Bailey said.

“I did,” Bellamy said. “I wasn’t sure if he was the real one or not.”

“You never know,” one of her classmates said.

After the reunion in the classroom, the Baileys went out to find the entire St. Francis student body and faculty lining the hall, waving American flags and red, white and blue pom-poms.

“Welcome home, Mr. Bailey!” the kids shouted, and then sang, “God Bless America” — while more than a few of the teachers and staff teared up.

“We pray for Mr. Bailey every day,” said Arledge. “When one of our parents is gone, it’s like a parent of all of us is gone. We really like to be here to welcome them home.”

When not on active duty, Brandon Bailey, 41, is a full-time electrical technology instructor at Hinds Community College. Both he and Jessica Bailey, 33, are graduates of Warren Central High School. Jessica is a loan officer at Mutual Credit Union.