Jordan Hartley’s return from Korea creates special moments with his kids
After returning to Fort Stewart from Korea, Hartley and his wife, Shea, with infant daughter Kori Jean, headed to the nearby football stadium to surprise their older children, Kain, left, and Kodi.
Former Bakersfield resident Sgt. Jordan Hartley holds his 3-week-old daughter, Kori Jean, on the night he returned to Fort Stewart, Georgia, after an eight-month deployment to Korea.
Sgt. Jordan Hartley’s young children Kain and Kodi got a grand surprise recently when they attended a high school football game at Donnie Clack Stadium in Rochelle, Georgia, near Fort Stewart. As the kids’ great-grandmother, Pauline Bean of Bakersfield, tells it, the announcer told the crowd a special event was planned after the game ended, and everyone was invited to stay.
“After the game, the cheerleaders came out, doing their thing, and they had the mascot with them,” Pauline told the Times Monday.
The “mascot” was wearing Army camouflage – and a football helmet – as the cheerleaders led the way to spectators who were lined up and waiting on the field.
“When they got close to the kids, the mascot pulled off his headcover, and Jordan’s kids went berserk. Kain said, ‘Oh! That’s my daddy!’” Pauline said. “Jordan picked them both up and hugged them, and the little boy, Kain, wouldn’t let go.”
Earlier that evening of Sept. 21, Hartley, a 2007 Bakersfield High School graduate, had returned to Fort Stewart from an eight-month deployment to Korea, where he served as a cavalry scout assigned to the First Brigade, Third Infantry Division. Wanting to surprise their older kids, his wife, Shea, sent them to the football game with family friends while she met Hartley as he returned to the nearby Army post.
His return was special, not only because he was welcomed home by his wife, but also because he got to hold, for the first time, his 3-week-old baby, Kori Jean, whose birth he had missed while he was in Korea. After that special moment, they headed for the football stadium for another one – surprising their two older kids.
Shea had become pregnant shortly before Hartley had left on his deployment to Korea, Pauline said. Previously, he had served a year-long deployment there. He also served a tour in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, and he did a training mission in Canada, she said.
Hartley is the son of Paula Bean Bass of Caulfield and Mark Hartley of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and the grandson of Pauline and her husband, the late Gene Bean, for whom Kori Jean is named.
“After Shea found out she was pregnant, she went to the doctor and found out she was pregnant with two,” Pauline said. “And then, I’m not sure if he hadn’t already boarded the plane for Korea when she got the report that there were three babies. But she lost two of the babies, but they saved one. It was a difficult pregnancy.”
The original plan was that Hartley would be home from Korea in time for Kori Jean’s birth, but that plan went out the window when the baby arrived three weeks early.
Videos of Harley’s surprise appearance at the football stadium are posted here: