Two Pine Forge Elementary students received a special surprise on Thursday, April 27.
Around 2:30 p.m., Sgt. 1st Class Ommannan Gonzalez arrived at the school with his wife Amy Dombrowski-Gonzalez to surprise their two children whom he hasn’t seen since September. Ommannan is home on leave from active duty in South Korea.
During snack time, Ommannan entered into his 6-year-old daughter Sydney’s kindergarten classroom. As soon as she saw him, she ran into his arms. He then surprised his 9-year-old son Jackson in his third grade classroom as the class was playing a game of hangman.
“It means a lot to me, I miss my kids. Seven months is a long time,” said Ommannan.
Amy said it’s been hard to keep the surprise visit a secret from her kids.
Pine Forge Elementary Principal Stephan Pron helped to coordinate the surprise visit with teachers, telling the classes the principal was shooting a video featuring “kids being kids.”
“We’re doing this, and then it’s a normal day,” said Amy explaining how both of kids have a baseball and softball game that night. “We kind of jump into ‘normal’ very quickly.”
This is the fourth time the family has been apart from each other, and it hasn’t gotten easier.
“I want to say that we’re good at transitions – but there are still transitions, if that makes sense,” said Amy.
Ommannan has been in the service for 16 years, having been stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan
“The first time I deployed they weren’t born, the second time Jackson was a little baby, the third time they were just very young, now it’s like to the point where they’re getting older and they are understanding,” said Ommannan. “It’s more difficult now.”
Amy, an alumnus of Boyertown, said the family has previously lived in Ft Stuart Georgia and Fort Brag, N.C. They returned the area this past August, right before Ommannan went overseas.
“We thought it was a good opportunity for the kids to come home, experience Boyertown and experience family. I wanted to come to Pine Forge, I went to Pine Forge, and I wanted them to have the Pine Forge experience.”
She said they’ve never surprised the kids like this before. And when asked why or how they came up with the idea to make the homecoming so public – she spoke about military life, and giving this community a glimpse of that.
“I think it’s because this is a non-military town, if that makes sense. For Jackson, for both of them really, it’s hard for people to wrap their heads around what the military lifestyle is like. You can see it on TV and you may know somebody, but to be involved and understand that dad really is gone – if that makes sense.”
“I always say that military life, in my opinion, is more difficult for the family,” said Ommannan, adding how he’s over as pretty much a bachelor and doing his work. “But for them, it’s more difficult. They have to take care of the house, the lawn, the bills, the kids.” He credits his wife for bringing up the two kids as if she were a single mom.
“We wanted to share with the other kids, too,” said Amy. “A lot of kids know but it’s very different to see the uniform than it is to talk about it. For Jackson, he can always talk about his dad but no one sees his dad.”
Principal Pron has been working with the family since the start of the school year.
“We put a plan together to make sure everyone is okay at school. They’ve been working hard. You can tell they think about him a lot,” said Pine Forge Elementary Principal Stephan Pron. “They’re good kids.”
As Ommannan visited the classrooms, the other children were able to ask him questions about the military.
