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Serengeti Hosts Family's Reunion With Navy Dad

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Hubert Akers hugs his son Noah, 8, after surprising his family at Busch Gardens. Akers, a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, has spent the last six months stationed in Iraq and Kuwait.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 23, 2008

TAMPA - With four lettuce-chomping giraffes watching, Navy corpsman Hubert Akers, just back from a six-month tour in Kuwait, rolled up on his 8-year-old son in a reunion fitting for the Serengeti plain, Busch Gardens style.

The reunion was engineered by marketers at the popular Tampa theme park and played out to the delight of about a dozen Akers family members who were aboard the flatbed truck along with Noah Akers, who had no idea his father was back from the Middle East.

As Noah held out a clump of lettuce to the hungry giraffes, his father pulled up on the back of another flatbed. The look on the boy's face revealed elation – and surprise.

Family members clicked cameras and exchanged hugs. They all were wearing Faded Glory 2008 T-shirts. They all knew about the reunion except for the young boy.

Noah had no clue.

"Oh, my God," the boy uttered when he first saw his father decked out in khakis. "How did you get here?"

"I drove," the grinning father said.

A pause, maybe rooted in disbelief, followed. The boy might have teared up. More than a few family members and the park's public relations crew on hand for the moment also had wet eyes.

"I didn't know you were coming," the boy said.

The giraffes patiently watched, their large heads looming over the truck from both sides, eager for the next leaf of lettuce to be lifted their way.

"How do you like the giraffes?" the father said.

"Good."

It was sinking in. Noah's initial shock turned into a broad beaming smile. Then the typical father-son small talk began. They were getting reacquainted.

They talked of school and fishing and the new Indiana Jones movie. They talked about older brother Eddie's foray into driving. Eddie is 15. He was there, and he knew about the surprise.

Akers is a hospital corpsman serving with the Navy's Mobile Construction Battalion 14. He was shipped back to Mississippi this week and drove from there to Tampa, where he grew up. He arrived Wednesday night. Keeping the secret from Noah was no small task, especially since everyone else in the family knew.

"It wasn't easy," said Noah's grandmother, Joyce Akers. "If we had to go another week, we wouldn't made it."

The father, sons and family all got on one truck and headed off into the wilds of Busch Gardens, eager to get on with their civilian lives.

"This is a so-special day," Noah said. "I'm about to explode."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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