Homecoming: Soldier surprises children during classroom visits

PALMER — Isabelle and Joseph Marchione didn’t think their father would be home from Afghanistan until Valentine’s Day.

So when he appeared in their classrooms at Swanson Elementary School Thursday, they looked as if they thought he was a mere mirage. They froze in their tracks, unsure of how to react.

But as soon as they were in his arms, the shock and awe melted away faster than a box of chocolates in the desert.

“I was going to surprise them at the house, but Julie wanted to do it at the school so it’d be more fun for them,” Army Specialist Tobe Marchione said after his wife, Julie, picked him up at the Anchorage airport Wednesday night.

They had to sneak him into the house after their four children were asleep, then keep him hidden in their bedroom the next morning until Isabelle and Joseph were on the bus to Swanson.

Their two youngest children, ages 1 and 3, got the jump on their older siblings when the toddler, Anthony, discovered his dad by accident upon awakening that morning.

The baby, Brookly, wasn’t quite sure who he was at first, Julie said.

“She wasn’t even walking the last time I was home,” Tobe said while awaiting Joseph’s arrival in kindergarten room 170 after he and his classmates returned from recess.

He was sitting in Joseph’s chair on the far side of the room as Julie stood ready with camera in hand. In the opposite corner, Swanson Principal Mary Kate Mayer and four other staff people giggled with excitement over the sort of surprise they’ve only witnessed on YouTube.

“I just thought it was a wonderful surprise for the children,” Mayer said. “We have an increasing number of families here serving in the military.”

Tobe, 29, is in the middle of his second deployment to the Middle East as a motor transportation coordinator. He’s home for two weeks, then won’t be home again until next Summer.

The first time he was deployed overseas, it was to Iraq just before the holidays, Julie said.

“That was for 15 months, so he missed two holidays in a row and he’ll miss this one, too,” she said. “But we’ll be having an early Christmas this time before he goes back on the 17th.”

It was sheer economics that drove the former car parts store employee to enlist in the military in April 2006, his wife of seven years explained.

She also was working full-time as a certified nurse’s assistant before he joined, but with two young children to look after, they wanted to find a way to support the family so that she could stay home.

“He’s in a dangerous location,” Julie said. “You hear about it on the news all the time. It’s hard. I try not to watch the news if I don’t have to. We support his decision to be in the Army. It’s taking care of us and our family.”

But all the fears of faraway places seemed forgotten as she and her husband focused on their son entering the room a little past noon, oblivious at first to the significance of extra visitors that day.

As he was about to hang up his coat and take off his gloves, he glanced over to his desk and saw a rather large, yet familiar, figure sitting there. After first double-checking with a classroom aide on whether his glasses were deceiving him, he quickly shuffled straight to his father’s arms.

Julie’s eyes instantly filled with tears.

“Are you happy, sweetie?” she asked Joseph, who sports a crew cut just a tad longer than his father’s.

Joseph nodded and hugged his father even tighter the second time.

His teacher, Mary Schaff, told Julie to feel free to take him home and to keep him there for as long as she wanted during his father’s visit.

Next stop — his sister’s portable room out the back door. Her second-grade class had just settled back in to eat lunch.

Mom and the two younger children ran interference by entering the portable’s front door as dad and Joseph slipped in the back way.

Isabelle waved at her mom as a couple of her classmates, noticing the cameras, yelled, “The paparazzi is here! It’s the paparazzi!”

As Joseph tiptoed next to his sister and whispered in her ear, “Don’t turn around,” their father stood behind her for a few seconds before she finally realized he was there.

Another 10 seconds or so lapsed before her mother’s prompting of “Give him some love!” snapped Isabelle out of her disbelieving stare and propelled her into his arms.

Just before they all headed home together in their Dodge minivan, Isabelle’s teacher asked how many in the room had parents serving in the military.

Half of the 22 students raised a hand.

“It’s always hard going back,” Tobe said of his inevitable return date in two short weeks. “We’ll just enjoy our time together while we have it.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.