FORT CARSON — Most kindergartners don’t think about war, but it was hard for Adde Hinton to think about anything else this past year.
“My special soldier has been fighting bad guys in Afghanistan, forever,” she said as she jumped up and down on the bleachers at the Fort Carson Event Center, a red, white and blue crown clinging to her head.
The U.S. Army said that the Raider Brigade would return from Afghanistan that day. Only fate could determine whether Pfc. Sean Healy, 22, would come home safely with the unit.
Adde had worried about the private first- class ever since they met, when Healy was home in Arvada for a 10-day leave in February. He invited Adde to dinner at a restaurant in Lakewood. Before she said a word, she hugged him.
“So you are Adde,” the soldier said. “I’m Sean.”
She giggled, “I already know your name.”
Adde, then 5, had been sending care packages to him for months, ever since she “adopted” Healy through American Military Family Inc.
“I don’t know if you know how much it means to me to meet you,” he said.
Their connection had already given Adde a perspective few kids her age have. They sat and talked about how cold it was in Afghanistan.
“At least I have a warm bed,” she said. “I don’t like that you sleep in a dirt hole.”
As Adde’s mom, Tiffany, watched this new friendship take shape, she felt a pain in the pit of her stomach. “It kind of hits you: What if something happens to him?”
Over the next three months Adde collected money. She went to neighbors’ houses and filled her Valentine’s Day box with dollars. She packed dozens of care packages. Adde always included paintings and letters.
She recruited the student body and staff at Northridge Elementary School in Highlands Ranch to help. They filled barrels with donations used in care packages for other members of the military.
Fourth-grader Andrea Cushman is impressed. “I would never think that a kindergartner would ever have an idea as great as this.”
It was a good distraction, for the worry that was always close for Adde and her family.
“You are always wondering if he is OK,” Hinton said.
The Raider Brigade lost 65 soldiers during its tour of duty. That fact was not lost on one person when the announcement was finally made at the events center on June 22: “Ladies and gentlemen, welcome your soldiers home!”
Adde clapped and screamed as her eyes scanned the sea of camouflage. “Where is he? Where is he?”
She and her family made their way through the other reunions in the room. “I found him! I found him!”
Tiffany Hinton took her daughter off her shoulders. One hundred thirty-three days after their first hug, Adde and her soldier were face to face again.
“I missed you!” she exclaimed as she jumped into his arms. “At least you came home safe!”
“Just for you,” he answered.
Healy took a plastic key chain out of his pocket. It was a picture of Adde. “I kept that with me all day, every day.”
He told Adde when things were difficult, seeing her photo helped. “I would just think about your smiling face and it would be OK.”
Most kindergartners don’t think about war, but Adde Hinton, now 6 and starting first grade, says her friendship with Healy has taught her things about it.
“I can do something to help war,” she said.
Sharing Adde’s mission
Learn more about Adde Hinton and her adopted soldier Pfc. Sean Healy tonight on 9News at 10.
Watch Denver Post photojournalist Anne Herbst’s video about them at
