CORDOVA, Tenn. — Craig Brown serves his country as a Naval reservist and serves the people of Memphis as a police officer.
He’s deployed in Africa until November, but he was granted leave and he couldn’t wait to surprise his family here.
Brown has been planning this moment since he found out in January he’d get to come home for two weeks.
“A couple of months ago, I told her that we were having communications blackouts over there where we were at. That they were shutting communications down for reasons I couldn’t talk about.”
It was all part of an elaborate plan to get a window to make the 26-hour flight home for the big day.
He had some help here, too.
“We put together a fake meeting for an event we really do have in June.”
Interim police director Mike Rallings, an Army veteran himself, was even in on it.
“My PIO gave me wind of it last week and said you really need to be there, and I said that’s all I need to know. I’ll make sure I’m there,” Rallings said.
And in case you’re wondering if all that scheming worked, the look on his wife, Christy Brown’s, face says it all.
Sunday’s meeting was set up by the MPD Family Initiative, a group of officers’ spouses and relatives who work to support police officers and their families.
