Deployed daddy watches his son's birth via webcam

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Tarelle Walker
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Imagine finding out that you are not only about to be deployed, but you also have a baby on the way.

This is the situation Staff Sgt. Nicholas Todd, 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Operations Squadron, found himself in when, four months into his wife's pregnancy, he was informed of his upcoming deployment to the Middle East.

"We had five women in my shop pregnant, all with their babies due around the same time, so I couldn't really play the 'I have a baby coming' card," said Sergeant Todd, who is deployed here from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. "It was my turn to deploy. It's part of the job, and I knew it had to be done. I figured there would be a way to work around it once I got out here; fortunately, there was."

Even though this is Sergeant Todd's second child, it was the first time he has been faced with the possibility of missing the actual birth. The situation seemed difficult to overcome, but he says he was determined not to allow a little thing like distance stand in the way of him witnessing the labor and delivery. Though webcams were not a foreign concept to Sergeant Todd, he didn't initially consider the option of using one to solve his dilemma.
With the assistance of his first sergeant, Sergeant Todd found out about the webcam services offered at the Learning Resource Center.

After coordination with the stateside hospital where his wife would give birth, a plan was made to allow Sergeant Todd to communicate with her and view the birth of his child by means of instant messaging and digital webcam. As the due date drew closer, Sergeant Todd was given a cell phone so his home unit could contact him with updates on his wife's progress.

"I didn't realize how big of a deal it really was until I saw [Sergeant Todd's] face the first day I met him," said Airman 1st Class Jill Mather, 379th Expeditionary Services Squadron client support administrator. "He was wide-eyed and glowing, ready to have his baby. It was just a great feeling."

On March 25 at 11:01 p.m., Sergeant Todd became the father of an eight pound, five ounce baby boy named Rylan.

"It felt great knowing we had people to stand up for [my family] and help us out," said Sergeant Todd. "They went above and beyond for something that was important to me. Not being there was hard, but being able to watch and know what was going on to be sure my wife was in good hands made a world of difference."