Kendall Williams wrote to her Navy officer father in Guantanamo for several days, wishing he could see her cheering her on at the homecoming football game. Petty Officer 2nd Class Dale Williams, a 14-year-old girl, had no idea he was going home from his post for only 24 hours, determined not to miss her performance.

Williams, who hadn’t seen his daughter in seven months, surprised her on the football field at Erwin High School in Asheville, North Carolina, on Friday during an emotional reunion. Kendall thought it was just an honor for her father, who graduated from the same school, when the announcer called the names of the soldiers across the stadium, until she turned and saw him.

Kendall is seen hugging her father while sobbing in front of the crowd during the reunion. «I was perplexed,» Williams admitted to the Asheville Citizen-Times. «I expected it. They split up to sing the national anthem side by side, but when the music stopped, the adolescent girl ran up to her father, crying with joy.