SONOMA — Sitting with her classmates in gym class at Altimira Middle School on Thursday, Brooke Guptill didn't know what to think when the man in green-and-tan camouflage uniform strode into the opposite side of the gym.
"I just thought maybe it was someone's dad or uncle or cousin," she said. A lot of students have family in the military. Her own father has been in Iraq and Afghanistan much of her life.
Then it slowly dawned on her. It was her father, walking across the basketball court to embrace her for the first time in 2? years.
Hesitantly at first, Brooke stood and ran to her father, Army Spec. Ross Guptill, whose surprise return to his hometown was led by a platoon of flag-waving veterans and a motorcycle honor guard.
Guptill hugged his daughter tightly, lifting the long-haired, lanky 13-year-old off the ground and holding her in a prolonged reunion.
"Welcome home!" shouted the four dozen or so veterans who burst into applause as reality sank in for the teenager, and joy shone on the faces of her father and his parents, Sonoma residents Arlene and Ron Guptill.
"He's seen more combat than John Wayne," Ron Guptill said.
"Are you surprised?" Arlene Guptill asked her granddaughter.
Appearing almost stunned, Brooke stared up at her father, wiping tears away and worrying that her gym clothes weren't appropriate to welcome her dad home after such a long time.
"This is absolutely amazing," the soldier said, reaching for another hug from his daughter and gently rubbing her back. "She's grown."
"Two-and-a-half years. ... It's been a rough patch for us," said the soldier, also a little teary. "Coming home to this was probably the best gift I could ever have."
Guptill, a Sonoma native and 1991 Altimira graduate, has served three combat tours of duty, one in Iraq and two in Afghanistan. He returned to the U.S. on leave nine days ago and after "reintegration classes," arrived in Sacramento on Wednesday.
He initially served with the 19th Engineering Battalion based in Ft. Knox, Ky., and last year volunteered for a third tour with the 7th Engineering Battalion out of Ft. Drum in New York.
During those seven years, his parents have cared for Brooke and are her legal guardians.
Guptill said he knows he's missed a lot being in the military: His daughter's first days of school, helping with her homework, seeing his little girl blossom into a young woman.
"The fact that he's serving his country is important to me," Brooke said, but of course she worries. "I don't want to grow up without a dad."
Guptill said that in three years he will have served 10 years in the military. Then he'll decide whether to make it a career, he said.
But for now, he'll spend the next few days reconnecting with his daughter, parents and other family members in Sonoma before he returns to his unit in New York.
(You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 762-7297 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.)
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