MONTEREY, Calif. (WSVN) – A U.S. Army engineer was not willing to miss the birth of his daughter, taking multiple flights and traveling thousands of miles across the world.
According to KSBW, Army combat engineer Francois Clerfe took advantage of a policy that allows soldiers to travel home for the delivery of their firstborns. Over the course of two days, Clerfe took 10 flights and traveled more than 8,000 miles in the air. He traveled from: Iraq to Kuwait to Turkey to Frankfurt to Baltimore to Atlanta before finally arriving in California.
But the intense travel schedule allowed him to make it in time to see his daughter Julia Clerfe’s birth at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. Though the baby was due to be born on Jan. 9, she decided to make an early appearance on New Year’s Day.
New mom Natallia Svistunova gave birth to the couple’s healthy baby girl, named Julia, at 9:53 a.m. on Jan. 1. Little Julia was the hospital’s first baby of the new year.
Clerfe now has 30 days of leave and an additional 10 days of paternity leave before he gets deployed once again.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.