BELLEVILLE, Ill. — An Army paratrooper returned home just in time for the holidays and dropped in to surprise is 5-year-old son at Union Elementary Friday afternoon.
Julius Shepherd hadn't been home to Belleville, Illinois in a year and hadn't seen his two young children in months.
He shocked his son Jaden at school by surprising him at Union Elementary’s winter break assembly.
“I hadn't seen (my son and daughter) in a while and that's my little man,” Shepherd said. “Emotions were high.”
Shepherd is a private in the Army and training at Fort Bragg in North Carolina to become a paratrooper.
“Every time I got on the phone with him he gave me the saddest face when I said I wasn't coming home,” the father said.
He had been waiting all day to see his only son.
“It was insane,” he said. “I just wanted the moment to happen I didn't want to wait anymore. I was glad to see he was just as glad to see me as I was him.”
Shepherd takes his fatherly duties seriously.
“I want to show them the right way,” he said. “I didn't have the best role models for that. My mom was my dad. My older brother was my dad.”
The dad didn’t come home empty handed. He gave his son his dog tag and Saint Michael medallion.
The soldier said Army training is one of the hardest things he’s ever done. The only thing more difficult is being able to see his two kids.
“It was definitely stressful, it was the first time I felt real stress,” he said.
He said he will be spending a lot of time with his kids before returning back to Fort Bragg on Dec. 30.
