Seattle native JL Summerlin (right), Afghanistan District-South construction control representative, played a “cat and mouse game” on Kandahar Airfield trying to track down his nephew, Pfc. Leyton Summerlin, or Las Cruces, New Mexico.

The elder Summerlin was on his way back to the United States while the soldier just arrived in country and was leaving with his unit to Zabul province, the same area where JL served a year-long tour working with a provincial reconstruction team.