FORT CARSON, Colo.—An Army private based in Colorado got a surprise visit in Afghanistan from his father, an Army sergeant from a Texas unit.
Sgt. 1st Class Marc Seal tracked down his son, Pfc. Nolan Seal, at the Kandahar Airfield on Aug. 9, the Defense Department said.
The elder Seal is an infantry squad leader assigned to a Texas National Guard agribusiness development team. He has served on active duty and in the National Guard for 16 years and is on his third combat deployment since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
His 19-year-old son is with the 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colo., and deployed to Afghanistan this summer. It’s his first combat tour.
Nolan Seal is from The Colony, Texas. His father’s age and hometown weren’t immediately available.
The command sergeants major in the two men’s units helped Marc Seal arrange the reunion but kept the secret from Nolan. Marc Seal hitched rides on two different aircraft to get to Kandahar in the early morning hours and was escorted to the tent where his son was still asleep.
They spent 36 hours together at Kandahar before the elder Seal had to return to his duty post in Ghazni, Afghanistan.
“Nolan will be forever changed by his tour in Afghanistan, some good and some bad,” Marc Seal told the Department of Defense Armed Forces Press Service. “But no matter what, he will never be that little boy I used to know.”
