US military officials said on Wednesday that Reach, a girl born aboard a US military plane as her family fled Taliban rule, was named after the plane’s code name. In a US military base in Germany, the mother of the baby went into labor while being flown there on Saturday. Military medics helped the woman deliver her baby in the cargo hold of the plane as soon as the plane landed. After that, the mother and child were taken to a nearby hospital.
In the United States Air Force, every aircraft has a code name used to communicate with other aircraft and control towers. The code for C-17 cargo planes is usually ‘Reach’ followed by a number. General Tod Wolters, the commander of the U.S. European Command, says the parents named their child after the plane’s code name, Reach 828 -a name that came into being as the plane brought the family to safety. Wolters said Reach and her parents are headed to the United States with other Afghan refugees.
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Over the past two months, US bases in Europe have hosted more than 7,000 people evacuated from Kabul, but only 100 had sustained injuries. 25 of those 100 people 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.
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