Major Tom Watiti just wanted to stay home Saturday night and relax.

His wife, Judith, had other ideas. She had to figure out a way to get him to Club Hood where 60 of his friends and colleagues were waiting to welcome him home from Iraq with a surprise party.

The U.S. Army Operational Test Command test officer, who spent the last six months as part of OTC’s Forward Operational Assessment Team XV, finally agreed to attend a friend’s birthday party at Judith’s insistence. And he had to get dressed up in his Army Service Uniform to boot.

Arriving at the club an hour and a half late to a darkened Starlight Room, Watiti was speechless when the lights came on and the applause and cheers started.

“I am surprised,” was all he could muster as he made his way around the tables. “I thought I was going to someone’s birthday party. You have really surprised me.”

One of the program’s highlights was a slide show of photographs Watiti, the enterprise software testing expert for OTC’s Mission Command Test Directorate (MCTD), had forwarded to his wife during his deployment.

He explained to those in attendance that he and his 23 teammates looked at mine rollers, radar systems, metal detectors, various vehicles and munitions systems in use by units in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I was fortunate to be part of a great team of Soldiers, civilians and contractors,” Watiti said. “The kind of feedback we got from the units is invaluable to Army leaders as they make acquisition decisions.”

He said he missed not having Thanksgiving and Christmas at home, “But we enjoyed traditional meals on both holidays, and the care packages we received from here were greatly appreciated,” Watiti added.

With nearly 27 years of active duty service, Watiti is a naturalized citizen originally from Kimilili, Kenya. As the top architectural student and athlete at his village school, Watiti was awarded a scholarship to attend college in the United States, where he met Judith.

“Tom and I met as college students in my hometown of Detroit, Michigan,” Judith said. “We dated for almost a year and a half before we married. As far as my parents were concerned, Tom was the only man who deserved me.”

After his retirement later this year, the Watitis plan to remain in Texas.

“Tom loves the terrain and open ranges of Texas so much,” Judith said. “When he was a child in Kenya, he was responsible for herding his father’s cows to the watering hole each day, so Central Texas reminds him of his village.

“I guess you could call him a ‘cowboy,’ she chuckled. “I am so glad we’re settling here.”

“The Army will lose a great officer,” Lt. Col. Clarence White, MCTD division chief, said. “He just earned a master’s in electrical engineering, so I’d say it was time he took a break.”