Levittown Army Specialist Greets Family After Returning Home

It was cold and windy outside Wednesday evening but hearts were warmed inside the former Benjamin Franklin School in Bristol Township as a local military member returned home to his family.

A group of veterans and their peers in the Warrior Watch motorcycle club stood at the ready. Kathleen Fraser, her daughter, grand kids and the rest of her family sat quietly in the auditorium of the school just waiting to see the face of Army Specialist Joshua Allaire, who was coming home after serving our country.

The sirens from the police and fire department escort grew louder and then the clink of the metal doors closing. Within seconds, a surprised Joshua Allaire walked into the auditorium with a grin that seemed wider than the Grand Canyon.

Laurel Allaire, his wife since late 2014, smiled and walked with their kids directly to her husband who has been around the world as a military mechanic. His duties often had him working on equipment urgently needed by his brothers and sisters in arms.

“It’s hard not to cry,” Laurel Allaire said moments after she kissed her husband for the first time in a long while. “We’ve been waiting for this for so long.”

His mother-in-law, Fraser, said Joshua Allaire had purchased a three-bedroom house near Fort Stewart, Georgia, for his wife and kids but due to a pending commitment they weren’t able to move down. Instead, he served his country and moved back to Bristol Township once his enlistment was up.

Fraser said her son didn’t want to spend another day away from his kids and wife.

“He would have been [in the Army] for a career but he gave that up to join his family,” she said. “But now he’s already enlisted in the National Guard.”

Joshua Allaire said he watched his kids grow up through Skype calls and only made it home a few times in three years due to his varying orders.

Joshua Allaire and his family will live for a while with Fraser to help her as she undergoes and recovers from eight upcoming surgeries connected to a 2007 vehicle crash. His mother said he has eyes on becoming a police officer.

“I enjoyed my time in the Army,” the the freshly discharged Allaire said. “I look forward serving my country in anyway that I can.”