"I pray for him every day." she said. The best part of his visit for her was "just knowing that he's here and he's safe ... Just sitting here, that's the best quality time you can spend."

She might not have gotten to see him if it weren't for her boyfriend, Joe Kurtz, who offered to pay for Spc. Klinger and his wife to fly up from their home in Round Rock, Tx.

"It's the best gift he gave me," she said of Mr. Kurtz.

Spc. Klinger, a 2000 Shikellamy graduate, and his wife fly back to Texas Tuesday and he returns to Iraq on the 25th. But right now, he's just grateful for the time he's been given.

"It's what I needed," he said with a smile, looking across the deck at the rest of his family. "Nothing can replace family, that's for sure."

In spite of the Army's tendency to crash his plans, Spc. Klinger has mapped out what he hopes will be his future. He plans to start training for an aviation job after he gets back from Iraq permanently at the end of the year. He and his wife are hoping that could eventually lead to him being stationed in Europe.

"I want to try and have the military teach me as much as I can before I get out," he said.

But before all that, there's still a honeymoon to take care of. And where do they plan to go?

"Somewhere tropical," he said. "Where we can go and not worry about anything."

n E-mail comments to rscott@dailyitem.com.