Too bad she knows as the surprise would be great. I know!
While in Nam, anyone who extended (at least in the USAF) for 6 months, got a free 30 days leave and the Air Force would fly you anywhere in the free world.
While I was tempted to head for places such as Sydney Australia (where there were many comely lasses) or Europe (ditto) I decided to fly to Vermont and surprise my Mom and Sis for Christmas as it turned out, a wise and wonderful decision.
I'll never forget that Christmas (1966) and though my Mom was thrilled, when she learned I had to go back for another 7 months (I had been due to come home in Jan 67) it weren't all that pleasant.
God Bless your nephew and let us not forget all our brave Warriors who won't be home for the Holidays and let's keep them in our thoughts and prayers.
Thank you for your service. My Dad served two or three TDY’s in Viet Nam back in about 1963/1964. We were stationed in the Philippines at Clark. He did some sort of training for repairing fighter jets. I was pretty young, so I didn’t really understand the whole politics or the war at the time, it wasn’t until I was older and we were back in the US that the politics of the war were on the news and I understood what was going on over there. I just remember how glad I was when my Daddy came home!
When my husband came home from a years tour overseas, we suprised his mother at the bowling alley. I thought she was going to faint. We had the whole place cheering and crying. When we went to his brother’s, his brother opened the door, stared, then shut it!! My marine knew better than to suprise me, as we had a couple of days together before I had to share him.