Just in time: mobilized reservist makes it home for daughter's wedding

Call it luck. Call it fate. Call it what you want, but Sarah Stout calls it "overwhelming" that her dad made it home from the war in Iraq in time to give her away at her wedding April 26.

Sarah's dad is Tech. Sgt. James Stout, an avionics specialist and mobilized reservist with the 920th Rescue Wing, Patrick Air Force Base, Fla. He's been on active duty for about a year and during that time has spent about six months deployed overseas to the desert sands of Southwest Asia. Most recently, he was sent there in early March for Operation Iraqi Freedom. With Sarah's wedding date set for April 26, they feared he would miss it.

In a move of desperation, 21-year-old Sarah e-mailed President Bush and asked if he could have her father sent home for the wedding.

"I did what I had to," said Sarah, who has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair.

In her e-mail to the president, she wrote in part: "As a little girl, I never imagined I would have someone that loves me or have a wedding day. My father worried whether or not someone would look past my disability to accept me for the person I am. Luckily, someone did."

Those lucky enough to witness Sarah and her dad's emotional reunion April 19 at Melbourne International Airport erupted in spontaneous applause when the sergeant lifted his daughter from her wheelchair and hugged her repeating, "I've got to hold you! I've got to hold you!"

"You're not mad (at me for writing the president) are you?" Sarah asked between squeals of sheer delight, tears of joy rolling down her cheeks.

"Of course not, baby. You did good. You got me here," said Stout, a veteran of both the Vietnam War and the first Persian Gulf War.

Moments after their reunion, Stout said, "I'd already told her 1 didn't think I was going to make it. I'm not sure how it happened. ... if somebody pulled strings or whatever. All that matters now is that I'm home. I haven't slept in the four days since I got word I was coming home."

Officials with the 920th RQW said they didn't receive any directives from the White House or the Pentagon to bring Stout home. His homecoming was apparently a coincidence that paralleled troop drawdowns brought on by the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

"The bottom line is everything worked out well for the Stout family, and we're glad about that," said Col. Tim Tarchick, 920th RQW commander. "It's like a fairy tale with a happy ending. ... or should I say beginning?"

Sarah and her fiance, Mike Forrester, were scheduled to be married on the beach in Ormond Beach, Fla. In addition to her father being there, her brother Jim, a corporal in the U.S. Marine Corps, also planned to attend. He was in the area on convalescent leave from Camp Lejeune, N.C., recovering from foot surgery.

"I'm so happy they'll both be here, along with my grandmother," said a beaming Sarah.

(Lieutenant Colonel Warren is assigned to the 920th RQW al Patrick AFB.)

COPYRIGHT 2003 Air Force Reserves
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group