WASHINGTON -- The shock and pure fear captured on Elian Gonzalez's face during the early-morning raid in Little Havana is gone, his dad's supporters say.

He now sports a big, cheeky smile, the kind a kid has when he's with someone he loves, someone he had missed. After a private moment alone with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, Elian emerged from a U.S. Marshal Service eight-seater plane at Andrews Air Force Base in his father's arms. His head was gently tucked into the crook of his dad's neck, as the beefy agent who plucked him from Donato Dalrymple's arms beamed with pride.

"It was unbelievable," said INS Commissioner Doris Meissner. "Elian was just wrapped around his neck."

After an early-morning raid at his relative's Little Havana home, Elian was flown to Washington, D.C., with U.S. marshals, two doctors, INS agent Betty Mills, assistant director for investigations Jim Goldman, and the lead agent whose machine-gun-wielding photo has been shown around the country.

"I was shaking more than the child was," Mills told Meissner later. "That is one strong kid."

When the flight landed at 8:30 a.m., Juan Miguel Gonzalez boarded. They gave him a minute alone, away from the cameras that have followed his boy for the five months he has lived in the United States.

"I saw him within minutes, and it was clear that there was huge relief on Juan Miguel's face, and a wonderful smile on Elian's," Gonzalez's attorney, Gregory Craig, said. "I saw no evidence that he was terrified, frightened. He seemed to be very happy to be back with his father."

And the father with his son.

'TEARFUL, HAPPY'

"He was tearful and happy," said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, who spoke to Juan Miguel by telephone after the reunion. "He was incredibly joyous, crying, joyful and relieved."

In a picture taken at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after Elian Gonzalex was removed from Miami and flown there Satuday, Juan Miguel Gonzalez holds the boy, 6, while his wife Nersy holds their 6-month-old son Hianny

Craig, speaking by telephone to CNN, said the hours the father and son spent together at a compound on the Andrews Air Force base were happy ones. "He was laughing with his little brother, Hianny. He was hugging his father," he said. "He's a strong boy. That connection [between father and son] is so profound, so strong. When you see the two of them together, you realize something terrible was being done," when they were kept apart.

Even the 250-pound agent who plucked the boy out of a closet was moved, Craig said.

"I must say, it was a very touching moment in the room when the INS agent, six-two, 250-pound, said how proud they had been to reunite him," he said. "These are non-emotional, nonsentimental people. They'd seen love. It was a very, very warm moment.''

RELATIVES SEETHE

While Craig and Campbell were delighted in the lovefest, the Miami relatives were outside seething. The Miami family, including cousin Marisleysis and great-uncles Lazaro and Delfin, accompanied by rescuer Dalrymple, flew to Washington to see the child.

They were turned away, however, when they tried to enter Andrews Air Force Base.

Craig said the visit was too soon, and not even officially requested.

"There's been no request through us," he said. "With respect and understanding of what they've gone through, they might give it a couple of days time for the father to spend time with Elian, and then maybe it's possible."

A 15-minute drive through the winding roads at Andrews revealed little more than a tranquil Saturday for many service personnel stationed there.

The only sign that the largest news story of the year had shifted from Miami to the base was the heightened security around the Gateway Inn, a series of mostly brown single-story homes where Elian and his father had been taken.

One such home was next to the Officers Club and diagonally across from the base hospital. It was guarded by three plain-clothes agents.

Lori Lessner of The Herald's Washington Bureau and Herald staff writer Frank Davies contributed to this report.