Chief Thomas Bennett of Suffolk Police wrapped up Career Day at Kilby Shores Elementary School on Friday with an exciting presentation of law enforcement’s tools of the trade.

Gathered in the gym, third-, fourth- and fifth-graders were shown such items as handcuffs, a baton, pepper spray and a Taser. They even got to pass around the bulletproof vest and “ruggedized” police laptop.

But as Bennett fielded questions — “What is the most dangerous situation you’ve been in?” “What do I do if I find a sniper in the backyard” — no one noticed the pair of polished black shoes just visible below the bottom of the drawn curtain behind him.

Then the curtains were opened. Four brothers — third-grade triplets Bradley, Brenden and Brett, sitting on the floor with their classmates, and kindergartner Blake, wondering why he was standing at the back of the gym with his mom — finally had their Naval aviator dad home after an eight-month deployment to South Korea.

First smiles, then tears while the smiles remained. From everyone.

“I feel just really excited to be back to my family,” said Sgt. Bruce St. John, 30, who fulfilled a childhood dream when he received his Wings of Gold in February 2013.

St. John enlisted in the Marines in September 2002. His first deployment was to Iraq in 2003, where he earned the Navy and Maine Corps Achievement Medal with a combat “V” for his valor in a firefight with terrorists.

Eight honorable years later, he joined the Navy to chase that aforementioned childhood dream. Before receiving his wings, St. John attended Officer Candidate School and received his commission as an ensign and a designated Naval aviator.

Danielle St. John had collected her husband from the airport Thursday night. They went out to dinner and home about 11 p.m.

Bradley said his younger brother spied who he thought was his dad in their home Thursday night. “Blake said, ‘Come up here, it looks like dad!’” he said. “Mom said, ‘No, he’s not home yet.”

“We were trying to hide him in the garage to fulfill the most epic homecoming that we could,” Danielle St. John said. “For about 12 hours we hid him.”

Bruce St. John said the school suggested the surprise homecoming when his wife called about getting the boys out early.

“I’ve been gone for a long time,” he said. “You miss them a lot being away, as all military people do when they are deployed.”

“Knowing he’s home, out of harm’s way, is more than words could describe,” Danielle St. John said.

She described a juggling act during the past eight months: baseball, church and school activities, cooking and cleaning.

Then the questions: “When’s daddy coming home?” “Why does he have to go away for so long?”

Mom always had a good answer for that last one:

“I would just tell them that everyone’s parents are different, and daddy chose the path less traveled, which is to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America.”

The boys are proud their daddy is a Navy aviator, she said.