Afghan girl born on US military plane named Reach after aircraft
Baby girl born on evacuation plane after her mother fled Afghanistan is named Reach after the aircraft’s code name
- Reach’s mother went into labor while the US military plane was flying her family from Qatar to a US military base in Germany
- The baby’s mother was having complications during the flight, so the aircraft commander descended in altitude to increase air pression, stabilizing her vitals
- Once the plane landed, baby Reach was safely delivered and taken to a medical facility with her mother
- Reach and her parents, who have not been named, now await relocation to the US
An Afghan girl born aboard a US military plane as it came into land in Germany as her family was fleeing Taliban rule was named Reach after the aircraft’s code name.
The baby’s mother went into labor on Saturday while flying from a staging base in Qatar to the Ramstein Air Base.
As soon as the plane landed, military medics helped the woman deliver her baby in the cargo hold of the plane.
‘They named the little girl Reach. And they did so because the call sign of the C-17 aircraft that flew them from Qatar to Ramstein was Reach,’ said Gen Tod Wolters, commander of US European Command.
US Air Force medics at Ramstein Air Base in Germany help an Afghan mother off the C-17 airplane – call sign Reach 828 – moments after she delivered a baby aboard the aircraft. The baby would later be named, Reach, after the aircraft
The Air Mobility Command revealed that the mother was having complications when she went into labor during the flight en route to a US military base in Germany. The aircraft commander decided to descend in altitude to increase air pressure inside the plane, stabilizing the mother
Reach was delivered after the military plane landed and taken to a medical facility in good conditions
The code for C-17 cargo planes is usually ‘Reach’ followed by a number.
According to tweets from the US Air Mobility Command, the mother started having complications shortly after going into labor so the aircraft commander descended in altitude to increase pression, saving her and the baby’s life.
When the flight landed, personnel from the 86th medical group at the Ramstein base came aboard and delivered Reach, who was later transported with her mother to a nearby facility.
Reach and her parents now await relocation to the US.
‘As you can well imagine, being an Air Force fighter pilot, it’s my dream to watch that young child called Reach grow up and be a US citizen and fly United States Air Force fighters in our Air Force,’ said Wolters at a Pentagon briefing.
Army Captain Erin Brymer, the nurse who delivered Reach, told CNN that she was expecting the worst and hoping for the best.
‘When the baby came out screaming! And we were able to put her directly on the mom’s chest and get her breastfeeding right away.
‘I was like, ‘Okay, we’re good here,’ she said. She called the baby’s delivery ‘the coolest moment of my life.’
Of the 7,000 people evacuated from Kabul who had passed through US bases in Europe since August 20, only 100 required medical care.
Of those 100 people, 25 have been admitted to a local hospital and 12 have already been discharged.
Two other babies were born after their mothers landed at the Ramstein base, Wolters said.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that 88,000 evacuees have left Afghanistan since evacuation efforts started, but thousands are still awaiting evacuation flights as the deadline for complete withdrawal approaches.
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