Photo By Benjamin Faske | Capt. Robert Orallo, 433rd Logistics Readiness Squadron fuels flight commander, wife...... read more read more
The cafeteria at Bulverde Creek Elementary School was filled with first graders, parents, teachers, and local media waiting in anticipation of a big surprise. Capt. Robert Orallo, 26th Aerial Port Squadron ramp flight commander, recently returned from a six month deployment to Iraq and wanted to surprise his daughter Iliana upon his return.
"I'm here to surprise my little girl" said Orallo. "It was a long deployment and especially hard on her so I wanted to surprise her and it has blossomed into this."
Throughout his deployment, Orallo wrote to his daughter about the tales of a fictional character, Sir Snorful of Hamelot. His daughter created other magical characters as well such as, King Waffle, Queen Syrup and the Lava Monster. These short stories served to broaden here imagination and remember her dad who was serving our country.
Leslie Clay, a first grade teacher, began reading the story of "Sir Snorful and the Soldier's Surprise", to Iliana's classmates who had gathered in the school cafeteria for story time. As the story was being read, Orallo appeared from a room and moved into position at the back of the cafeteria unbeknownst to the children who were listening to the story.
As Clay read from the story, "The Soldier walked on and after another day of travelling, he finally reached his town. He arrived home and ran in to see his little girl but she was gone! He searched and searched for his little girl, looking in her closet, under her bed, and in their backyard but she wasn’t at home. Then the soldier decided he would try her school. As he walked into the library all the students were sitting down, even the Soldier’s little girl, Iliana! The teacher was reading a story to them when suddenly the teacher looked up and saw the Soldier standing there and said to the little girl, “Iliana, look behind you!”
Just as the story foretold, Iliana turned to see her father standing at the back of the cafeteria with flowers in hand. The two ran to meet each other with open arms. As they met Orallo wrapped his arms around his daughter and lifted her off her feet in a warm embrace, there wasn't a dry eye in sight as everyone cheered the two.
"It was really hard keeping this a secret because she is really good at figuring things out," said Mrs. Gabriela Orallo, the mastermind behind the surprise for their daughter. "I had to hold in my excitement when he came home because I just knew she would know."
| Date Taken: | 02.07.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 06.05.2017 12:11 |
| Story ID: | 223603 |
| Location: | SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 46 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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