VERY, VERY COOL

Twenty-year-old Theodora -- who he married only three days before leaving for active Army duty -- ran to him and jumped into his arms.

It was their first kiss since January.

The emotional scene was set a few minutes earlier, when the pilot on his U.S. Airways flight announced a Florida National Guard soldier serving in Iraq was on board and about to see his wife and baby son for the first time in nine months.

The pilot asked other passengers to wait 10 minutes before leaving the plane, to give the soldier a head start down the concourse.

The plane erupted in applause as DeSantis, 21, made his way down the aisle.

One passenger slipped him $100 for his homecoming dinner. Flight attendants gave him a bottle of champagne.