Soldiers come home from overseas every day, but it is not an everyday occurrence in Searcy.


Mark Troillett wanted to surprise a member of his family.


Troillett had been deployed to Camp Hovey, South Korea for exactly twelve months.


“If anybody has seen those homecoming videos, you know it will make you choke up a little bit.


Just thinking about the opportunity of me actually being the one away and the opportunity to come home and surprise somebody, it was just something I felt that she would like and something she would enjoy a whole lot,” said Troillett.


“I always like seeing them on TV and hearing about them. And it’s always deserving of the person that gets surprised and the person that gets to do the surprising. It’s always just a positive thing” said Russel Troillett.


With Troillet gone for so long, his family has only seen him around six days in the past sixteen months.

It was emotional for Troillet to just see his mom and dad.


He thinks that it will be emotional once they see each other again.


“She’s a very shy person anyways, so it’s going to be very overwhelming for her. But a nice overwhelming” said Vanessa Troillett.


“She might smile, she might cry, she might be blown away by the whole thing” said Troillet.

said “I think any parent basically lives for their kids.”


said “My kids are the world to me. And him being gone for so long, it’s just something I wanted to do for both of them.”


After the surprise, Kimberly Troillett said “I started crying a lot and I didn’t want to let go. I kind of took me a minute to realize what was going on, but once I did, I was really excited.”
“It was worth it. Her genuine reaction that she gave me, I don’t know.


It was hard for me to stand there in the mascot uniform for as long as I did without her knowing that I was there” said Troillett.


Hearing her voice was one the most emotional experiences for Troillet.


“I don’t think it could’ve been any better” said Troillet.