Soldier Returns Home For The Holidays

By Craig Day, The News On 6,

TULSA, OK -- For soldiers, there's no place like home and it is even more special being home around the holidays.

It was a quiet day at Tulsa International Airport on Tuesday as Jina Vietta sat quietly and waited patiently to welcome her son home.

"I'm real anxious to see my son," Jina said.

It had been 150 days since she last saw him.  She said it was hard to wait any longer.

"It's very hard and I'm getting more butterflies as the time goes by," Jina said.

Private First Class Toran Vietta has been in Iraq since July. Seeing him walk through those revolving doors at the airport will be the best Christmas present a military mom could hope for.

"The last thing that I actually did was give him a pocket cross and told him to be very careful and come home safe," Jina said.

But the plane was delayed. She had to wait a little longer.

That was enough time though for a group of students from Will Rogers Middle School in Claremore to get in place.

They were caroling at the airport and heard a soldier was coming home. They wanted to sing for him.

Finally, the plane arrived. PFC Toran Vietta of the 123rd Infantry was home from Iraq.

The children sang "Let there be peace on Earth."

She cried when he left.  Now they were tears of joy.

"Just glad to be home. You don't have anything like this overseas, so it's just real special," PFC Vietta said.

Though he has to leave on Christmas Eve, this is still a Christmas wish come true.

"I thank God every day. I have the ability to come home, there's people that haven't been, still people who haven't got to come for Christmas, so I'm just glad I got that blessing," PFC Vietta said.

"To all those others who don't have their families home for Christmas, our thoughts and prayers will be with them," Jina said.