ST CHARLES, Mo. — After nearly a year in the Middle East, a St. Charles service member is finally getting the chance to hug his daughter again.
Michael Wagner has been a Marine for 24 years and has been deployed overseas and away from family multiple times. On Friday, Seton Regional Catholic School in St. Charles helped him surprise his daughter.
“'I don't know, is she going to cry? Is she not going to cry? Am I going to cry? Am I not going to cry?" he said before the big surprise. "I haven't seen her in almost a year, so we'll see."
Wagner just got back from an 11-month deployment overseas to Jordan.
"So where do I go? Do I just go hide in the corner?" said Wagner as he waited for his daughter Olivia to walk through the door.
And as soon as she saw him, she ran to give him a big hug.
She knew her dad was out somewhere serving the country, but she's now happy to have her friend back home. The love of a father for his daughter made for a welcome back they'll never forget.
"This is why I do it right here," Wagner said. "My wife and my daughter and just so the future doesn't have to go through what we had to."