Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

After being told to cover their eyes for a surprise to see whose Christmas wish will come true, Cole Barger opened his eyes to see his dad, Army Spc. Steven Barger, in front of him. Cole, a second-grader at Mountain View Elementary School in Alleghany County, had just moments earlier told the class his Christmas wish was for his dad to come home from Iraq.

"The look on his face when he got to see me was worth the one and a half years of not seeing him." -- U.S. Army Spc. Steven Barger

Photos by ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Cole Barger is happy to see his dad, Army Spc. Steven Barger, who showed up as a surprise to his school. Barger just returned from Iraq and had not seen his son for 18 months. Cole is a second-grader at Mountain View Elementary School in Alleghany County.

COVINGTON -- All eyes were on little Cole Barger in the Mountain View Elementary School library on Monday as everyone watched and waited to see the look of shock on the second-grader's face.

And when the surprise came, little Cole didn't disappoint. The 8-year-old opened his eyes to see his father, fresh from combat duty in Iraq, standing in front of him, and Cole looked as if his brain had just blown a fuse. A single minute earlier, after all, he had told his classmates that his special Christmas wish was for "my daddy coming home."

And then -- presto! -- there he was.

As U.S. Army Spc. Steven Barger of Roanoke knelt down and pulled his son to him, Cole buried his face in his father's neck and cried. His father wept as well. Ever since the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began, soldiers have been returning unexpectedly to surprise their sons and daughters in such manner: As touching as any of those moments was the reunion of Cole and his father.

"You've been a strong little boy," Barger softly told Cole, who had not seen his father since July 2008, when Cole was 6. "You've been a strong little boy, you know that? Daddy's very, very proud of you."

Meanwhile, Cole's classmates, whom teacher Lynette Huffman had steered into the library with the promise of a discussion about Christmas wishes, clapped their hands and cheered Cole's good fortune.

"I thought it was a dream," Cole said later, adding that he was "100 percent" surprised.

Barger is a soldier with the 1st Cavalry Division and was in Iraq, south of Mosul, until returning to Fort Hood in Texas on Nov. 16.

Cole, who lives in Clifton Forge with his mother, had not expected to see his father until March. But Barger said events worked out so he could spend several weeks in Virginia to spend time with Cole over the holidays -- after missing last Christmas and two of Cole's birthdays.

Barger had originally planned to simply show up at the school and ask his son to lunch, but making sure it was a surprise turned into a logistical extravaganza involving Huffman, Alleghany schools Superintendent Sarah Campbell, Principal Teresa Johnson and Barger's mother, Evelyn Powers of Roanoke. While Huffman kept Cole and his classmates busy, Johnson shepherded reporters into the library, and Powers waited with Barger in an adjoining room.

When the second-graders took their seats in the library, Campbell asked them if they had any special wishes. Cole answered first, saying he wanted his daddy home. Another youngster asked for an iPhone. Another asked for "a hundred dollars." Two wished for their fathers to find good jobs.

Campbell told the students that "it's not often that somebody can get a wish that they wish for." But then she announced that someone in the classroom was going to get their wish that very moment. She then made them close their eyes.

When she told the students to open them, Cole looked up to see a soldier in battle fatigues -- his daddy.

"I'd call [from Iraq] every chance I got, but there were times I wouldn't get to talk to him for three or four weeks," said Barger: "The look on his face when he got to see me was worth the one and a half years of not seeing him."

Barger said he'll be home until Jan. 4, and after that he doesn't know where the Army will send him. Maybe Afghanistan.