Marine returns home and meets daughter

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - It was a heartwarming homecoming when a Marine met his daughter for the very first time. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant Frank Bongiovanni has been gone since March. He has missed a lot while he has been in Afghanistan serving our country.

Bongiovanni said, “Overwhelming, it’s kind of like the most scariest thing the world right now.”

As the Niagara Falls native returns home, he has a new mission. Being a dad for the first time.

“Your stomach goes up to your throat. I just can’t put it into words, I really can’t, it’s probably one of the best feelings in the world,” Bongiovanni explained.

He missed Cassandra’s birth and the first four months of her life. Bongiovanni said, “The first couple of months after she was born it was kind of rough being away, and having to deal with hearing her crying and keeping mom up, there’s nothing you can do to help. That’s probably the hardest thing.”

As he holds her in his arms for the very first time, she looks up at him. Not as a stranger, but as someone she has known all along. Bongiovanni said, “It’s kind of like, you’re excited, scared, it’s just a flood of emotions all at once.”

Bongiovanni says he, his fiancee and daughter will be here for two and a half weeks, then they will move down to a base in North Carolina.