VIDEO: Sailor Gets a Surprise Welcome Home

Two decades after enlisting in the U.S. Navy, New Lenox resident Scott Schaefer is home for good.

At least 150 friends and family members celebrated his return Thursday with a suprise welcome-back party at . Schaefer, a member of the Community Emergency Response Team, thought he was heading to a regular meeting and walked into the upper level to find a sea of American flags greeting him below.

Schaefer made his way down the Village Hall steps, high-fiving friends and tearing up before seeing his wife, Kristin, and 8-year-old son, Jeremy.

"It was crazy down here," said Schaefer, a petty officer second class. "I figured (they were) up to something."

Schaefer joined to Navy in 1981, and after a few years out re-enlisted following 9/11.

"He had always thought about going back, but after 9/11 he really felt he needed to," Kristin said. Now he'll stay in the Reserve until retirement.

Friends, family and some strangers thanked Scott for his service, but he graciously thanked Kristin for all the work she did while he was away.

"She's a trooper," he said. "There's a decal on the back of my car that says the toughest job in the Navy is Navy wife, and it's true. She's responsible for taking care of the house, her job, bills, my son, the dog, laundry, the lawn, the list goes on and on."

Kristin was also tasked with keeping the party a secret for the week Scott has been home.

"I couldn't tell Jeremy, either, because he would blab away," she said. She made sure dinner was done by 5:30 Thursday, but around 6 p.m. Scott called her over to the computer to show her some photos of Afghanistan.

"All of a sudden it was 10 after and I said 'I've got to run out and get treats for school tomorrow!"

Jeremy said the thing he missed most about his dad was, well, "My Dad." And sledding, which he's excited to do now that it's snowed.