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Τετάρτη 28 Μαΐου 2014

U.S. Airman Swoops in to Surprise Daughter at Graduation




A high school senior who cried on her way to graduation because 
her father, a deployed member of the U.S. Air Force....
 
would not be there, got the surprise of her life after receiving her diploma.
Taylor Crafton, 18, of Grand Forks, N.D., had no idea what to expect Sunday 
when the principal of Grand Forks Central High School called her back up 
to the stage at the end of graduation.
In the audience, her mother, Paige Crafton, says she was a little upset that the 
principal would call out her daughter, whom everyone knew was upset that 
her father was missing another one of her senior year moments since being 
deployed to Cuba in January.
"I thought, 'Why is he pulling her up in front of all her classmates, knowing 
that her dad is deployed and it's so emotional?'" Paige Crafton told ABC News. 
"Taylor is up there just bawling her eyes out in front of her class."
Watching it all from the audience with the Crafton family was a cardboard 
cut-out of Taylor's dad, Chief Master Sergeant Chris Crafton, that Taylor 
had named "Flat Daddy" and carried with her to prom and other 
senior year milestones.
At this milestone, however, "Flat Daddy" was put aside when Sgt. 
Crafton himself rushed onto the graduation stage to surprise his daughter.
"We had 'Flat Daddy' there at graduation and that's all that we knew was 
going to happen until we saw him there," said Paige Crafton, 
an Air Force vet herself who had no clue of her husband's surprise.
Sgt. Crafton, who could not be reached today by ABC News, 
had managed to get permission from his superiors to fly home for 
the graduation well ahead of his planned return from deployment in August.
Crafton even flew over his daughter's graduation party on his way home 
Friday night and spoke to her right before she arrived at graduation, 
while never revealing his surprise.
"We live in the flight path and he said he could see the kids at the party 
at our house," Crafton said. "He hid out in a hotel until the graduation."
Sgt. Crafton, a 28-year Air Force veteran who has been on nine deployments 
and seen his family move from Virginia to Georgia to Italy until settling 
in North Dakota six years ago, will be home with his family 
on leave until Thursday.
He will then fly back to Cuba until he can return home in August and 
send his daughter on her next big adventure: studying interior design at the 
Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Ga.
"Now that the whole thing is over, we're all just kind of still in shock that 
the military let it happen and so thankful that he was here to celebrate 
Taylor's big day," Crafton said.
"She and her dad are very close and she was pretty devastated when he 
was deployed," she said. "It's been a roller coaster the past few months.

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