For the Gaskins family, watching the events unfold in Afghanistan on television from the comfort of their Fort Mitchell home was not easy.

On Tuesday, Ashley Gaskins was expecting her husband to depart from Kuwait to begin a long flight home after being deployed in the Middle East for almost a year to the day.

“He sent a text message saying his flight had been delayed. He was supposed to arrive Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. and he said his flight was delayed until Thursday night because of activities in Afghanistan, that he couldn’t talk but he’d call me when he could and I was very alarmed especially not being able to talk to him,” stated Ashley.

Their agony soon turned to joy when they got word their 20 year Army veteran had boarded the plane Wednesday night and expected back on American soil soon.

“I’m excited, the girls are excited. We are just ready for him to get here,” said Ashley.

Gaskins started his duties in Kuwait following a previous assignment at the Pentagon in August, 2020. The family described the emotion they all felt when he had to go away and leave them behind.

“There was a lot of crying at first but we used facetime and that helped a lot,” added Ashley.

To give their ‘super hero’ a big hearty welcome home, the family went all out, with signs, love letters and lined their front yard with red, white and blue flags.

In the meantime, 9-year-old Joceyln told us why she couldn’t wait to see her dad, “So I can jump on him, second, so I can look at his face.”

When Gaskins reached the Baltimore ariport, he was informed about a layover and that prompted him to take a commercial flight to Atlanta and then a shuttle bus to Columbus.

He finally made it to the Fountain City around 2:30 a.m. Friday morning with his family waiting in the wee hours to greet him with open arms. It was the beginning of a reunion that, undoubtedly, brought more tears, but this time...tears of joy./agencies