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Surprise Homecoming for Oklahoma Guardsman

By Sgt. Daniel Nelson Jr., 145th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment·November 18, 2013

Planning the Surprise

NORMAN, Okla. — Eighty-four thousand fans filled Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium for the OU homecoming game, most of them completely unaware that one of Oklahoma's own soldiers was hidden inside, preparing to surprise his family in a moment they would never forget. First Sgt. Brian Curtis of the Oklahoma Army National Guard's 1220th Engineer Company had his family in the stands, but they had no idea he was there. As far as his wife Lori, his daughters, his son, his granddaughter, and his brother knew, they were at the game to accept an honor on Brian's behalf while he remained stationed in Afghanistan.

The surprise had begun taking shape a few months earlier, while Curtis was stationed in Sharana, Afghanistan. His command approached him about the opportunity to return home early and surprise his family at the OU homecoming game, which had also been designated as a military appreciation game with more than 200 Oklahoma National Guardsmen on the field holding an American flag the size of a basketball court during the National Anthem. Curtis was initially reluctant. "Deep down though, I wanted to do this," he later admitted, but his first instinct was to push for one of his soldiers to receive the honor instead. His commander's response was firm: Curtis had consistently put his soldiers first throughout the deployment, and he had earned this recognition precisely because of that quality.

The logistics of keeping the secret were demanding. Curtis had to sneak his packing out of the transient tent at Bagram Airbase without alerting his fellow soldiers to the fact that he was departing ahead of schedule. He watched the kickoff of the OU game on television from inside the stadium, hidden from any chance of discovery while the first quarter played out. "I felt bad that I couldn't tell them," he said of his unit back in Afghanistan, feeling the particular guilt of a first sergeant who is separated from his soldiers even temporarily. Coordinated through the staff of Patriot Ford, the event sponsor, every detail had been carefully arranged to ensure the family was present and the reveal was perfectly timed.

Curtis laced up his combat boots inside the stadium as the first quarter wound down, preparing himself emotionally for what was about to happen. He worried about his wife Lori — "I hope she doesn't faint," he thought — and about his granddaughter, who had been very attached to him before he left. "I hope my granddaughter remembers me because before I left she was pretty clingy," he said, giving voice to the particular anxiety of a grandparent who has been separated from a small child for months and wonders if that bond of recognition has survived the distance and time.

The Reunion Moment

As the first quarter came to a close, Curtis was escorted from his hiding place to the tunnel of Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium and helped onto the Sooner Schooner, the iconic covered wagon pulled by ponies named Boomer and Sooner that is one of the most recognizable symbols of University of Oklahoma football. His family had been brought to the 50-yard line, where they stood facing the south end zone screen, fully expecting to receive an honorary presentation on behalf of their absent soldier. They had no reason to suspect that Brian Curtis was anywhere within thousands of miles of Norman, Oklahoma.

The Sooner Schooner emerged from the north tunnel while the family faced the opposite direction. Curtis scanned the crowd for the family members he had not seen for months, his eyes moving from the faces of his daughters and son to his wife and granddaughter to his brother Clayton. It was Clayton who recognized him first. "I saw my brother first; he came running at full sprint. I don't think he's moved that fast in years," Curtis said, laughing at the memory of his brother's sudden and complete abandonment of composure. Curtis jumped off the wagon and ran toward his family, and as he did, 84,000 fans let out a cheer that rose above the stadium and lingered in the Oklahoma air.

"I hardly remember anything other than trying not to fall," Curtis said of his run toward his family, capturing the disorienting intensity of a moment in which months of longing and anticipation suddenly collapsed into the present. His wife Lori, collecting herself in the aftermath of shock, reflected on how close to the truth her daughters' intuition had been: "My girls had a feeling that something like this was possible." The reunion on the 50-yard line of one of the country's most storied college football stadiums gave the entire crowd a shared moment of human connection that went far beyond the ordinary experience of attending a football game.

Kelly Collyar of Sooner Sports Properties had done the behind-the-scenes work that made the surprise complete: researching who would have welcomed Curtis home, tracking down his wife, children, granddaughter, and brother, and ensuring that every person who mattered was present in the stadium without knowing the real reason they had been invited. Her diligence ensured that the moment belonged not just to Curtis and Lori but to the full family that had waited and worried together through the months of his deployment.

Community and Guard Support

The Curtis homecoming was embedded within a broader context of National Guard celebration and commitment. Ten more Oklahoma Army National Guard members reenlisted on the field during the same game, with the ceremony conducted by Maj. Gen. Myles Deering. The juxtaposition of a homecoming and a reenlistment ceremony on the same afternoon captured the ongoing nature of the Guard's commitment — as one soldier returns from a deployment, others renew their pledge to serve, ensuring the continuity of Oklahoma's military capability.

After OU's 48-10 victory, Head Coach Bob Stoops sought out Curtis personally and presented him with the game ball, a gesture that carried weight precisely because of its directness — not a presentation through official channels or in a formal ceremony, but a coach going out of his way to find a soldier and put a piece of the day's victory in his hands. "Oklahoma is still very supportive," Curtis said afterward. "There are still those people out there who are patriotic, and really support what we're doing." His words acknowledged the endurance of community support through more than a decade of ongoing war, a feat that is not automatic and should not be taken for granted.

Within a week, Curtis was to leave Norman and rejoin his unit at Fort Bliss, Texas, for demobilization processing before the 1220th's final return to Oklahoma. The brief window between his surprise homecoming and his departure back to Fort Bliss was a reminder that the military's demands do not pause for the emotional needs of even its most deserving soldiers, and that the reunion on the 50-yard line was not the end of the deployment but rather a remarkable interlude within it. When Curtis finally came home for good, he would carry with him the memory of 84,000 people cheering for him, his brother running full sprint toward him, and his family's faces in the moment they realized he was there.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are military homecoming traditions and why are they important?

Military homecomings are among the most emotionally charged rituals in American civic life, marking the end of a soldier's separation from family and community and the beginning of the complex process of reintegration. The tradition of welcoming home military personnel with public ceremony and community celebration is as old as organized warfare, rooted in the recognition that those who leave to serve in dangerous places deserve more than a quiet return to private life. Public homecomings validate the sacrifice of both the soldier and the family, communicate community appreciation in a tangible way, and provide a moment of collective emotional release after the sustained anxiety of deployment.

The surprise homecoming has emerged as a particularly powerful variant of the military return tradition, one that amplifies the emotional intensity of reunion by combining the ordinary setting of everyday life with the completely unexpected appearance of a loved one who was believed to be thousands of miles away. Surprise homecomings at school events, sporting events, holiday gatherings, and workplaces have become familiar stories in American media because they reliably produce moments of raw, unscripted emotion that capture something essential about the human cost and human meaning of military service. The shock of sudden recognition, the sprint across the gymnasium or the football field, the embrace that communicates everything words cannot — these moments resonate with audiences far beyond the immediate families involved.

For the soldiers who participate in surprise homecomings, the experience is often both exhilarating and emotionally complex. First Sgt. Brian Curtis described being unable to remember much of his descent from the Sooner Schooner because he was so overwhelmed, saying "I hardly remember anything other than trying not to fall." The physical experience of anticipation — lacing up combat boots in the stadium while his family prepared to receive a ceremonial honor in his supposed absence — captures the intensity of a moment in which months of longing for home suddenly collapse into the present.

Homecoming traditions also serve important functions for military families and communities beyond the emotional catharsis of the reunion moment itself. Public homecomings demonstrate to children that their parent's service is recognized and valued by the broader community, not just by their immediate family. They create shared memories that bind families together across the difficult experience of deployment. And they signal to other military families who are still waiting for their own soldier to return that the community sees and honors their sacrifice too, even before the moment of reunion arrives.

How does the University of Oklahoma support military personnel and families?

The University of Oklahoma has developed a sustained and multi-dimensional commitment to supporting military personnel, veterans, and their families that extends well beyond ceremonial recognition at sporting events. OU's Veterans Center provides dedicated advising, resource coordination, and community programming specifically for student veterans and military-connected students, helping them navigate the academic environment while managing the transition from military to student life. The university has also developed policies that accommodate the unique circumstances of student veterans, including flexible withdrawal and re-enrollment procedures for students called to active duty during their studies.

OU's designation of home football games as Military Appreciation events reflects the university's understanding that its athletic platform provides an opportunity to reach large audiences with expressions of community support for military service. By providing approximately 200 tickets to Oklahoma troops for the homecoming game at which Curtis made his surprise return, and by designating the event as a military appreciation occasion, OU created a setting in which soldiers were guests of honor rather than ordinary fans — a gesture that carries genuine meaning for soldiers who have spent months operating in environments entirely removed from the ordinary pleasures of American life. Head Coach Bob Stoops's personal presentation of the game ball to Curtis after OU's 48-10 victory added a personal touch that elevated the recognition beyond institutional ceremony.

The coordination required to execute the Curtis surprise homecoming illustrates the depth of OU's institutional engagement with the military community. Kelly Collyar of Sooner Sports Properties researched who would have welcomed Curtis home — identifying his wife Lori, daughters, son, granddaughter, brother, and other family members — and ensured that all of them were present at the game without knowing the reason for their invitation. This logistical effort, undertaken on behalf of a single National Guard soldier, reflects an organizational commitment to making military appreciation genuinely personal rather than generically symbolic.

OU's President David Boren articulated the university's philosophy of military engagement in his Veterans Day statement: "OU was proud to provide an opportunity for all Oklahomans to express our deep gratitude." By framing the university's role as providing an opportunity for the broader public to express its appreciation, rather than simply expressing institutional appreciation on behalf of the university, Boren positioned OU as a civic facilitator — an institution that uses its resources to create space for community-wide expressions of values that Oklahomans share. This philosophy of civic facilitation reflects a distinctive understanding of what a major public university owes to its state and its community.

What is the 1220th Engineer Company and what was its mission in Afghanistan?

The 1220th Engineer Company is an Oklahoma Army National Guard unit based in Muskogee that deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The company is a combat engineering unit trained to perform a range of missions including route clearance, construction, and infrastructure management. First Sgt. Brian Curtis served with the 1220th as its senior non-commissioned officer, responsible for the welfare, discipline, training, and day-to-day management of the company's enlisted soldiers. His role as first sergeant placed him in a position of particular responsibility for the soldiers under his care, which helps explain both his initial reluctance to leave them for a surprise homecoming and the command's eventual decision that he had earned the recognition.

The 1220th's mission in Afghanistan during this deployment focused in part on the deconstruction of forward operating bases in eastern Afghanistan, a mission that reflected the ongoing drawdown of American and coalition forces. As the conflict moved toward its transition phase, engineering units like the 1220th were tasked with systematically dismantling the extensive infrastructure that had been built over more than a decade of operations — a mission that required the same skills and equipment used in construction but applied in reverse. This deconstruction mission was logistically complex and demanded the same careful planning and execution as any other engineering operation.

Curtis's deployment with the 1220th took him to Sharana, Afghanistan, where he was stationed when his command approached him about the opportunity to return home early for the surprise homecoming event. His initial reluctance to accept — and his push for one of his soldiers to go instead — reflected the ethos of leadership that his commander cited as the reason Curtis deserved the recognition: he was the kind of first sergeant who consistently put his soldiers ahead of himself, which is exactly the quality that military leadership at every level prizes most highly. The commander's decision that Curtis had earned this honor was not arbitrary sentiment but a deliberate recognition of sustained, demonstrated excellence in the most important dimension of a first sergeant's job.

Within a week of the surprise homecoming at the OU game, Curtis was set to rejoin his unit at Fort Bliss, Texas, for demobilization processing before the 1220th's final return to Oklahoma. This detail captures something important about military service: even the moments of triumph and reunion are temporary, bounded by the ongoing demands of the mission. Curtis's willingness to return to Fort Bliss and complete the demobilization process with his soldiers rather than simply going home reflects the same commitment to his troops that had earned him the homecoming recognition in the first place.

How do families cope with deployment?

Military deployment places extraordinary demands on families, requiring them to maintain the routines of daily life — managing households, raising children, sustaining careers, navigating emergencies — without the presence and support of the deployed service member. Military spouses, in particular, take on a dual burden during deployment: managing their own anxiety about their partner's safety while simultaneously providing stability and reassurance for children who are also worried about a parent far away. The resilience required to perform this sustained emotional and logistical balancing act is remarkable, and it is one of the reasons that military families rightly receive recognition alongside the soldiers they support.

Lori Curtis, whose husband Brian was secretly hidden in the stadium when she believed she was attending the OU homecoming game to accept an honor on his behalf, captured the emotional complexity of the family deployment experience with a single observation: "My girls had a feeling that something like this was possible." Even while being deliberately kept in the dark about the surprise, the Curtis daughters had maintained enough hope and intuition about their father's return that the possibility had crossed their minds. This speaks to the emotional attunement that military children develop — an awareness of their parent's deployment circumstances that is as detailed and ongoing as the parent's own awareness of home.

First Sgt. Curtis's own words before the homecoming revealed the particular anxieties of a grandfather deployed to a combat zone. "I hope my granddaughter remembers me because before I left she was pretty clingy," he said, expressing the fear that is unique to service members with very young family members — that the months of absence may be long enough for a toddler or small child to lose the familiarity with a grandparent or parent that had been so carefully built. These developmental concerns compound the ordinary anxiety of deployment and reflect the way that military service intersects with the most intimate and irreplaceable relationships in a soldier's life.

The National Guard and military family support infrastructure exists in part to help families develop the coping strategies and access the resources they need to navigate the deployment cycle successfully. Family readiness groups, school liaison programs, Yellow Ribbon reintegration events, and behavioral health services all contribute to the resilience of military families, but ultimately the most important resource is the community of other military families who understand the experience from the inside. When Lori Curtis and her daughters sat in Gaylord Family Memorial Stadium and watched the Sooner Schooner come around the north tunnel, the recognition that crossed their faces was informed by months of daily coping, sustained hope, and the particular knowledge that only comes from living the deployment experience.

What does Oklahoma's military community mean for the state?

Oklahoma's military community is a defining feature of the state's identity, culture, and civic life in ways that extend far beyond the boundaries of military installations or National Guard armories. The state has one of the highest per-capita rates of military service in the nation, with a National Guard presence that reaches into communities across the state and major active-duty installations at Fort Sill, Tinker Air Force Base, and Vance Air Force Base that together employ tens of thousands of military personnel and their families. This pervasive military presence means that almost every Oklahoman has a personal connection to military service — a neighbor, a relative, a fellow church member, or a former classmate who has worn or currently wears a uniform.

That personal connection translates into a culture of support and appreciation that manifests in countless ways, from the spontaneous applause that greets uniformed service members in airports and restaurants to the elaborate institutional commitments of universities, sports teams, and businesses to military appreciation programming. When First Sgt. Curtis jumped off the Sooner Schooner and ran toward his family on the 50-yard line, the 84,000 fans in Gaylord Memorial Stadium "let out a big cheer" — a spontaneous collective expression of appreciation from an audience that included thousands of people with their own stories of military service, deployment, and reunion. That cheer was not a programmed response but a genuine emotional reaction from a community that understood exactly what it was witnessing.

Curtis himself articulated the significance of this community support from a soldier's perspective: "Oklahoma is still very supportive. There are still those people out there who are patriotic, and really support what we're doing." His use of the word "still" is significant — after more than a decade of continuous warfare, he was acknowledging that sustaining genuine public appreciation over such an extended period is itself an achievement, not a given. Many veterans of long wars have returned to find their communities exhausted by or indifferent to a conflict that had been going on for years. Curtis's experience at the OU game suggested that Oklahoma had not succumbed to war fatigue but remained genuinely engaged with the sacrifice being made in its name.

The 10 members of the Oklahoma Army National Guard who reenlisted on the field during the same game ceremony, with Maj. Gen. Myles Deering presiding over the ceremony, embodied the ongoing cycle of commitment that sustains the Guard's capability. In the same moment that Curtis was reuniting with his family after a deployment, other soldiers were formally renewing their own commitment to serve for another term. This juxtaposition of homecoming and recommitment captures something essential about the Guard's relationship with its state: it is a continuous, voluntary, renewable covenant between citizen-soldiers and the community they protect, renewed in ceremony and in action by people who have chosen, freely and repeatedly, to answer the call.