Soldier on leave sees daughter for first time | Maryland Gazette (HometownGlenBurnie.com)

His wife, Kathleen, was there with baby and son Jake, 3½, to greet Daddy as he came off the last flight he took to get home.

With his son grinning from ear to ear and peering up at him, all Spc. Santoro could muster was a quiet, "I am so glad to be home." It was a heart-warming beginning to Spc. Santoro's 18-day leave from his deployment in Iraq.

But here is not home, technically. As a member of the 87th Combat Sustainment Support Brigade, he and the family reside at Fort Stewart, Ga.

But Mrs. Santoro is staying at her family's waterfront house on the South River in Edgewater, where the four Santoros will do their best to fulfill the requirements of such a leave - rest and relaxation.

"We are going to sit on the dock and catch crabs," Mrs. Santoro said. "And some golf."

"And some time at Ocean City, too," Spc. Santoro said.

After Spc. Santoro kissed his pretty-in-pink daughter ever so gently on the forehead while holding her tiny hand in his, son Jake, had something to say about the program too.

"I got a baseball," he told his dad. And Mom mentioned he had a brand-new glove, too. Looks like he might get to break it in a bit before his dad's soldiering interrupts again.

Spc. Santoro, born and raised in California, had been in the Army Reserves for about 10 years, then got out. But he re-enlisted for active duty.

His wife grew up in Potomac, Montgomery County. They met 10 years ago in Colorado while both were working there.

"We met at a mutual friend's birthday party," Mrs. Santoro said. "And we were married 4½ years ago."

In Iraq Spc. Santoro's unit keeps transport traffic moving. It's dangerous duty.

"If a vehicle in a convoy breaks down, we get to them to help. We escort the contractor out there," he said. That contractor is KBR, the Halliburton subsidiary, which has all sorts of military support contracts in Iraq.

How fast they get out to a convoy depends on the situation and location. "We can get there pretty quickly."

So far he has not been in a serious combat situation. "We work hard at working as safely as we can," he said.

He has served about eight months of a 15-month deployment in country. And is due to go back the middle of this month.

It was a test of patience to get to Friday's reunion.

First there were at least four canceled flights as Spc. Santoro tried to get out of Mosul, Iraq, to Kuwait. "There were sandstorms, and other things I don't know about. Then I had to wait in Kuwait for a day and a half," he said.

The delay there was processing and lining up enough troops, once the paper trail was satisfied, to fill a flight.

Then he spent a day in Germany, took a plane to Atlanta, and then to BWI.

Asked when he started the trip, the tired soldier looked at his wife, "I don't know. What day is it?"

It was hard to piece together the time and flights. "I got out of Iraq, and several plane rides later, here I am."

It was not as hard for Mrs. Santoro to get to the rendezvous. But it tested her patience, too.

Military spouses and immediate family are allowed through to the actual arrival and departure gates at the airport terminal, while everyone else must wait outside the metal- and footwear-detecting security perimeter.

Mrs. Santoro went to the Delta Airlines desk as she was told to get her pass that allows her through. With infant and toddler in a stroller and her emotions on a can't-wait-to-see-him edge, she made her way down the terminal to the security check in. But no-o-o. She was told she had to have a pass for little Jake too, despite being assured that was not necessary at the Delta desk.

So it was back to the desk, pushing the family on wheels. Where she had to wait a couple minutes to get the pass that she hadn't needed just minutes earlier.

But it was all worth it, just to see the look on that boy's face when he saw his Daddy. It'll be one heck of a game of catch.