Abilene ISD -

United States Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Felisha Lubin wanted her reunion after returning from her fourth and final deployment before retirement to be one she and her youngest daughter would remember. So she did what she’s done so many times during her military career: she put a flawless plan together.

Lubin returned home to Abilene last Thursday (Oct. 10) after being deployed to “somewhere in the Middle East where it was extra hot.” Three hours later, she stepped into the cheerleader practice gym at Abilene High School to surprise her daughter, cheerleader Jasmine Boyd, with a Welcome Back Deployment Reunion.

Lubin, the mission support group chief during her 6 1/2-month deployment, worked with Dyess personnel to plan the covert operation. Although she wasn’t supposed to return until a couple of days later, she pulled off the surprise with the help of Dyess, AHS administrators, and her husband.

“My tactic was I told all the kids I was coming home on the wrong day,” Lubin said. “I even told my mom and dad (who live on the East Coast) that I was coming in on a different day. So they don’t know we were able to do this. No one thought I was coming home until Saturday (Oct. 12), so keeping the lie straight was easy because I told everyone the same thing.”

Boyd is a senior this year, and Lubin said the joy of not missing any more of her senior-year activities than she’s already missed made the return “the best one I’ve had.”

“I was very sad to leave because I didn’t want to miss anything of her senior year,” Lubin said. “I’m grateful it was mostly over the summer, but I still missed the first day of school, the football game against Cooper, Homecoming, and helping select her dress for the Homecoming dance. But now that I’m back, I’ll be able to be here for Senior Night, the prom, and all of those things.”

Boyd is Lubin’s youngest of six children, and though she didn’t shed a tear when her mother walked into the tiny gym, her look of shock and happiness told the day's story.

“I wanted to surprise Jasmine, and I was so excited to see her,” Lubin said. “I thought I would get a tear, but that’s OK. I was trying my best not to cry. I put on waterproof mascara for this because you never know what will happen. And I didn’t want to start crying hard because once I started crying, it would get ugly.”

Lubin will retire next summer with 28 years of service in the Air Force, and she’s already looking forward to returning to the everyday routine with her family.

“When the plane touched down in Abilene, it was a bit surreal that I was back home,” she said. “Being away for so long makes you appreciate what you have at home and realize how many little things you take for granted. I’m looking forward to the daily family moments like having meals together, seeing them walking around the house, and the funny moments we always have in our home.

“You miss those moments when deployed without that family base,” Lubin said. “I was in the Middle East with some amazing people, and we created a pseudo-family. But it’s nothing like having your kids or spouse there. There were a few times we would see kids, and I would remember when Jasmine was young, and then I would wonder about what she was doing at that moment, and those were hard moments. But it also gave me something to focus on because I wanted to keep myself safe and return home to them.”