Military families make sacrifices. That goes for the kids in military families as much the loved ones that get deployed abroad. Time away from mom and dad is an overlooked part of what military families give up as part of their service, but it makes for some of the most heartwarming family reunions. There have been some well-planned and creative cases of military families reuniting. Even one where the child met his dad for the first time when he returned home from duty.

The latest story of a military family reunion is great for a completely different reason. This moment where a three year-old runs to his mother returning home with her fellow troops was wonderfully unplanned and genuine.

This young boy has been without both parents at the same time for much of his life because both are in the military. In fact, the family of three hadn’t been under the same roof in nineteen months. They are are not strangers to these reunions and the story below touches on how there was already one touching moment where the father, Adam Waldvogel, came home after duty with the national guard in Afghanistan.

Their son, Cooper, practically jumped off of a platform to hug his dad when he came back, so you could expect that his mother’s homecoming would be pretty special as well. And it was.

Also coming home from Afghanistan after serving with the Minnesota National Guard’s 114th Tranportation Company, Cooper’s mom Kathryn got her own special reunion with Cooper. As Kathryn describes it:

All of a sudden we had to file into the building and get into formation, and I just look up and Cooper and my mom are right there, said Kathryn Waldvogel.

And then, Cooper went from “right there” to his mother’s arms. It’s obvious from the video that Cooper couldn’t wait for military procedure to finish because he wanted his reunion and so instead of waiting for the unit to be dismissed, Cooper took maters into his own hands. While the crowd waited impatiently for the formal ceremony to conclude, Cooper broke rank and ran to his mom to be the first to claim his reunion.

You can understand that by the end of the local news segment Cooper didn’t stop there, however. He offers one more heartwarming note at the end of the local news segment below. He asked his mom and dad if they could “play all day” with him.

According to Governing Magazine, Minnesota, where the Waldvogel family resides, has 649 active duty military and nearly 19,000 reservists. Their state alone likely accounts for some great stories of military families reuniting, but it will be pretty tough to top Cooper and his parents.

Maybe someday Cooper will join the military and have to follow orders like his mom and dad. For now, it’s doubtful anyone cares that he made his own rules and couldn’t wait another second to hug his mom.