Soldier takes 10 flights to see baby’s birth

A US soldier stationed in Iraq has made it home in time for the birth of his first child - after ten flights.

Combat engineer Francois Clerfe was able to take advantage of a policy allowing service personnel to return home for the birth of a child - but obtaining permission for the furlough turned out to be the easy part.

He eventually spent two days in the air, touching down in California just in time to be with his wife Natalia for the birth of their daughter. His epic odyssey involved ten flights on seven planes.

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The globetrotting adventure took him via Kuwait, Turkey, Frankfurt, Baltimore and Atlanta, before he finally arrived in his hometown of Monterey, California - a journey of more than 8,000 miles.

“It was fun and exciting at the same time, you know the thrill of thinking the 'what-ifs,'” he told local news station KSBW-8.

Time was even more of the essence than Clerfe knew - his daughter ended up arriving eight days before her 9 January due date.

“'I'm glad that baby Julia waited for me,” he told KSBW-8.

Clerfe’s wife, Natalia Svistunova, said: “I had the feeling that he would make it because he really wanted to be here, next to us.”

Just before 10am on New Year’s Day, Julia became the first baby to be born at the Monterey Community Hospital in 2018

Clerfe will remain in the US on paternity leave before returning to his unit in February.