buddy, oh well. he came out, i ran away, ran to side, and i was, like, whoa. saw him, gave him a big hug, miss this kid. the look on his face a made it worth it. gillian: and, thomas, you know, you ve been deployed multiple times. thank you for sure service. when is the last time you got to be part of a major family event like that before yesterday? i would say about two and a half years ago. gillian:ing wow. i was here briefly for about ten days in the last two years, but about two and a half years ago, yeah. [laughter] gillian: so what was it like for, how meaningful was it, you know, when your mom reached out and this idea started coming together? it was very meaningful. they definitely didn t see me coming, and i took em all by surprise. i haven t been here to support him for a lot of things in the last two years, so it was great to support him on his big day, graduating high school.
[laughter] gillian: returning home from overseas this weekend to surprise his brother scott at his high school graduation. he presented him with his diploma, as you just saw. thomas flight home for the reunion was made possible by the nonprofit organization helping heroes fly. we are now joined by corporal thomas hardin and his brother scott, they are with us from colorado. gentlemen, good to be with you. thanks for taking time out for us on this memorial day weekend. how are you both feeling after the events of yesterday? scott, were you expecting to see your brother? i know you weren t expecting to see him yesterday, but were you expecting to see him anytime soon, any visits planned, or this totally blindsided you? no. so how it happened was i ve never i haven t seen him in a long time, and it s as soon as they said from overseas, i
sacrifice means to us. so we got a room full of 60 kids, me and my mother, we read through them all, got them in envelopes, sent them over to this big guy over there, and he passed them out to his squad bay. and then every year since then we ve done this program we called it operation more than me, and we have been doing this for three years. i just finished the third year of letters, so we re going to look into sending those out soon. gillian: scott, it sounds like the initiative is already going well. we hardly have to wish you good luck with it, but we hope that it continues to grow. thank you for all of your efforts. thomas, thank you for your service, and thank you both for sharing your stories with us on this memorial day weekend. thanks, ma am. thank you. leland: the tornado that tore through missouri s capital packed winds of 160 miles an hour, and the danger is not over yet.
combined for the first time. when you re near an xfinity hotspot, you re connected to wifi, saving on data. when you re not, you pay for data one gig at a time. use a little, pay a little. use a lot, just switch to unlimited. get $250 back when you buy a new samsung galaxy. call, visit or click today. ladies and gentlemen, pardon the interruption if, but we do have a special guest that is joining us today, traveled a great distance from overseas. would you please welcome scott hardin s brother, corporal thomas hardin of the united states marine corps! [cheers and applause] oh, my god! [applause]