--- title: Son Reunited With Mom After 2 Years in Air Force: VIDEO description: The clip shows the amazing moment Grant Jackson was reunited with his mom in Memphis after serving nearly two years in Japan canonical: https://time.com/5078040/air-force-reunited-mom-memphis-years-japan/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-12-22T22:04:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:49:26.429Z og:title: The Moment a U.S. Airman Surprises His Mom for Christmas og:description: He was away for two years in Japan og:url: https://time.com/5078040/air-force-reunited-mom-memphis-years-japan/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac110491d7012e5/6988f671096a9406526a0eb8/air-force-homecoming.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 750 og:image:height: 422 og:image:alt: Air Force Homecoming og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Moment a U.S. Airman Surprises His Mom for Christmas twitter:description: He was away for two years in Japan twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac110491d7012e5/6988f671096a9406526a0eb8/air-force-homecoming.jpg?branch=production&width=750&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See the Tear-Jerking Moment a U.S. Airman Is Reunited With His Mom After 2 Years Away > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 22, 2017 10:04 PM UTC  Brittany Pettis  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Dec 22, 2017 10:04 PM UTC A video of a [U.S. Air Force](http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/17121/now-the-air-force-wants-new-engines-for-its-b-52s-that-burn-40-percent-less-fuel) airman surprising his mom by [returning home](http://time.com/4597278/jimmy-fallon-dwayne-johnson-military/) just in time for [Christmas](http://time.com/5077937/nebraksa-marijuana-christmas-presents/) is warming the Internet’s heart – just in time for the holidays. The clip shows the amazing moment Grant Jackson was reunited with his mom after serving nearly two years in Japan. His sister, Brittany Pettis shared the video on [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/brittany.pettis.395/videos/pcb.10103223013078140/10103223001845650/?type=3&theater) on Tuesday and it quickly went viral. It has since been watched over 4 million times on Facebook alone. In the clip, Jackson’s mom can be seen screaming and crying when he enters the kitchen of their Memphis home. Jackson told [WREG](http://wreg.com/2017/12/20/son-surprises-mom-after-serving-two-years-in-air-force/) that although he and Pettis began planning his homecoming months ago, he almost didn’t let her film it after an unexpected hangup occurred. “My sister is the one that wanted to make the video,” he said. “I was hesitant about posting it due to unfortunate circumstances with my baggage that prevented me from having my military uniform.” Watch the full clip below. > [](https://twitter.com/CStewartWPTV/status/944280514164416514) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5078040/air-force-reunited-mom-memphis-years-japan/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5078040/air-force-reunited-mom-memphis-years-japan/"},"headline":"See the Tear-Jerking Moment a U.S. Airman Is Reunited With His Mom After 2 Years Away","datePublished":"2017-12-22T22:04:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:49:26.429Z","description":"It's the perfect holiday surprise","url":"https://time.com/5078040/air-force-reunited-mom-memphis-years-japan/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Military","viral","christmas","Holidays","families","Holidays 2018"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac110491d7012e5/6988f671096a9406526a0eb8/air-force-homecoming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbac110491d7012e5/6988f671096a9406526a0eb8/air-force-homecoming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Air Force Homecoming","caption":"","creditText":"Brittany Pettis","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5078040/air-force-reunited-mom-memphis-years-japan/","name":"See the Tear-Jerking Moment a U.S. Airman Is Reunited With His Mom After 2 Years Away"}}]}] ```