A Wisconsin Marine made his family’s Christmas wish come true, returning home early after a long deployment.
Sgt. Troy Niedland surprised his wife and two sons Saturday by returning early from his deployment in Japan. They haven’t seen him in seven months, but he was able to come home after one of his sons wrote a letter to Santa asking for his dad to come home early.
“Honestly none of it really felt real until right in this moment when I walked in the tent,” Niedland said. “You don’t realize how much you miss until you’re gone for that amount of time. Just as an example when I left Harvey, the younger one, he was still babbling. And now he can strong full sentences and talk.”
But Niedland said he was able to come home not because of Santa, but because of other men and women serving overseas who won’t be able to see their families during the holidays — and he wouldn’t forget their role in his return home.
“Thank you for doing what you have to do so that I can come home and be with my family,” Niedland said. “And then maybe in the future we will reciprocate that so that you can be home and I’ll be in your place.”
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