Two Purple Hearts, two tours overseas, two sets of serious wounds and two missed birthdays for his son, and now Allen Pugh is home to stay.

“I can’t really explain the feeling of being home,” said the 25-year-old Pugh, a graduate of Porters Chapel Academy. “I guess you just don’t realize what you have. You don’t realize how important family is. I have been gone for most of the past five years and I just missed a lot. Time flies and you get old quick and don’t even realize it.”

Pugh held his 2-year-old son, Gavin, in his arms as he reminisced about his time in the military and, from time to time, Gavin grabbed Pugh around the neck and said “my daddy” in an almost protective way. Pugh has been away from Gavin for most of his short life having missed his first birthday by eight days and his second by a month, prompting some to suggest the pair barely know each other but one look at them together proves otherwise.

“It was hard,” Pugh said, “but when I got to the airport he was actually the one who saw me first. He screamed