Classroom surprises are always fun -- at least for kindergarteners.
It was a party atmosphere in 6-year-old Jamari Massey's classroom at Madison Crossroads Elementary on Feb. 9 when his dad, retired Master Sgt. James Massey, walked in unannounced after returning from a four-month deployment to Afghanistan.
All the kindergartener could do was drop his pencil, exclaim with joy "Daddy? Daddy!" and run into his dad's arms.
But the response wasn't quite the same from Jamari's brother, fifth-grader Xavier Hopkins.
Just a bit earlier, Xavier had been called out of his classroom. He was told he was in trouble for something he had done on the school bus that morning. As punishment, he had to go to his brother's classroom and help the kindergarteners with their math work.
A mischievous and fun loving boy, Xavier often gets in trouble for minor problems on the school bus. But on this particular morning, he hadn't done anything out of line.
"He kept thinking, 'Man, I didn't do anything this morning,'" said the boys' mom, Nichole Massey.
But to Jamari's classroom he went. Funny thing was there were also TV news crews setting up in Jamari's classroom.
"They had an earthquake drill earlier in the week and the teacher told the children they were going to have another earthquake drill and the TV stations were going to film it," Nichole said.
The drill never happened. Instead, their dad walked in.
"Man, you called me out of class for this?" Xavier said to his parents, putting on a tough act in front of the class before giving his father a hug.
Massey, a contractor working on elevated systems for the Program Executive Office for Intelligence and Electronic Warfare & Sensors, went on a mission to Afghanistan in October to conduct assessments and minor repairs on the 107-foot towers that provide security for contingency operating bases and forward operating bases in Afghanistan. Massey is among a group of several employees working on sensor and sensor data equipment in building 7425 on Warehouse Road near Gate 3 who are asked periodically to deploy to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
"I volunteered when the mission came up," Massey said. "When you take this job you are told you may deploy. So, I knew that was part of it."
Massey and his family are used to separations. During the last seven years of his 24-year military career, Massey, who married Nichole during that time, endured a one-year assignment to Japan without his family, a one-year deployment to Iraq, a one-year assignment to Fort Monroe, Va., without his family and several training assignments that also caused separations.
But with a mission that had to be done, Massey stepped up to deploy again, this time as a contractor.
"These towers are a force protection asset that incorporates radar and cameras for base security," Massey said. "I was part of a seven-man team that had a mission and a set time frame to accomplish the mission."
The team traveled by helicopter and convoys throughout Afghanistan in support of U.S. troops.
"We needed to make sure these towers were functioning properly," Massey said. "We saw a little bit of everything with the towers. We did overall assessments and some repairs, or we turned the repair over to a field representative if it required more than we could do or new parts that we couldn't carry with us.
"We went everywhere. Even the smallest FOB out there that doesn't have anything has a force protection system with towers that has to be checked."
Massey also made sure each base had a certified trainer and a certified crew to operate the towers. If training was needed, he supplied it.
"It takes a minimum of five Soldiers to operate a tower. You need 30 hours to train on tower operations and that doesn't include the payload. With the payload, you have 40 to 50 hours of training," he said.
The deployment wasn't Massey's first since he retired from the Army in 2008. While his civilian work at Redstone as a warrant officer instructor for the 59th Ordnance Brigade and then at the Warrior Training Exercise Site kept him at home, other work as a reset class instructor for the Aviation and Missile Command led to a one-year deployment to Iraq to teach reset in theater.
During this recent deployment, Nichole, who works as a staff action control specialist for AMCOM's G-3 Operations Demil, and the couple's three school-age sons once again managed without Massey, although there were a lot of phone calls back and forth.
"The 12-year-old kept telling me I needed to come home when we'd talk on the phone. The 6-year-old would get on the phone and say 'Hey, dad. How you doing? When are you coming home?' Or he didn't want to talk to me at all," Massey said. "I really enjoyed calling home. There was nothing to look forward to but calling my wife and my kids.
"Sundays were the hardest day for me because we were usually back at the home base and everyone only works a half day. I knew Sundays would be long days. But when I was out doing the mission the time went by fast because we were working all the time."
Massey enjoyed the reactions of his sons and their classmates. But the most memorable reaction was that of his oldest son, 15-year-old Deion Hawthorne.
"He goes to Sparkman High School and he's too cool for surprises," Massey said. "But he was the most surprised when I walked into the house. He saw me come in the door and he said 'Dad, dad, dad!' and then he grabbed me and pulled me and squished me in a bear hug."
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