The carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower's crew proved Sunday that they can simultaneously deliver ISIS airstrikes and babies.

A third class petty officer from Carrier Air Wing 3 checked into the carrier's medical clinic after stomach pains Saturday. Nine hours later, in the early hours of Sept. 11, she gave birth to a healthy 7-pound baby girl, according to an internal memo on the incident obtained by Navy Times.

“Both the mother and the baby are healthy and are doing well,” 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Bill Urban said of the new family on the carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Neither the mother nor her command knew she was pregnant before Saturday, Urban said. Normally pregnant service members would leave an operational command at 20 weeks and would certainly not deploy.


As soon as it became apparent they were going to have a baby on board, the Ike flew out diapers, formula and an incubator to the ship to care for the infant, whose name is being withheld for privacy concerns, as well as that of the mother.

“As the baby was born at sea aboard an operational unit, the main focus for the U.S. Navy, the ship and its crew is the safety and well-being of the baby and the mother," Urban said in an email.

After spending her first hours in the world on board a U.S. aircraft carrier at war, the baby also got her first ride on a helicopter when both mother and child were airlifted to Bahrain with a medical escort. They are currently on their way to a local hospital, Urban said.


“While it would have been preferred to send her to her homeport earlier, per policy, we are now focused on caring for the health and welfare of our sailor and the newest member of our Navy family,” Urban said.

Happily, the Ike had the right medical professionals aboard for just this sort of contingency.


"The family practitioner aboard Ike, who delivered the baby, is certified in child birth and has experience delivering babies," Urban added. "A number of personnel assigned to Ike medical department have received training to deliver and care for a newborn."

https://www.navytimes.com/articles/a-us-sailor-just-delivered-a-baby-at-sea-in-the-middle-of-the-isis-war

Oh this is just ridiculous....WE DO NOT NEED WOMEN ON OUR A/C CARRIERS!

Why not? It happened before the carrier departed in June........

Oh? So just where should they be? At home in the kitchen while barefoot and pregnant?

An aircraft carrier is a floating city, and it is quite common for women to serve as medical personnel.

not sure a pregnant Woman has any Business on a War-ship!

Not to mention civilian positions such as the NCIS Agent's Afloat...

If this girl didn't know, then big deal It does happen. You read about it every day someone giving birth and not knowing they are pregnant. it means she got pregnant before deployment, it didn't happen on ship so I really don't see the problem. We have women able to serve in combat, Special Forces, on Submarines etc.

They don't after 20 weeks, but if you don't know, you don't know. I am sure NCIS will investigate the claim and verify it, but no harm no foul and its a feel good story that everyone on that ship can brag about. With all the fighting we are doing it is nice to read about a miracle happening on board.......

If the Navy had known about the pregnancy, then the woman wouldn't have been on the ship.

Yes, there have been cases in which a woman was pregnant without her knowledge and the woman didn't appear pregnant.

Could you imagine being the skipper and getting that call from the Medical Bay while you have an active flight deck in the middle of multiple attack missions. Must be a pretty good feeling and a stressful one since everything slams into emergency mode and you have to notify your command to get baby supplies flown in, transport with a full medical team to transport the soldier and the baby to the nearest hospital which is in Bahrain, then deal with any fall out.

All though, I bet he felt damn good afterwards.

What I would ask is if the woman ever appeared not to meet the U.S. Navy's physical fitness requirements.

Apparently she met them or she would have been removed from the ship.

I have no problem with women serving on a ship..
The only thing here is how in God's name did she no know she was pregnant.
sorry as a mom here and with two of my babies I didn't gain more than 16 pounds I knew I was pregnant yanno when you are getting the crapped kicked out you while you are sleeping or in the last trimester when a baby is trying to put their feet through the bottom of your rib cage. .come on... I don't buy that part...

And no I didn't look pregnant with my last one either wore jersey's and unbuttoned my 501's 2 buttons and I was good to go.

I read articles all the time about women giving birth and not knowing they were pregnant. All women are different.

Why ruin a feel good, morale story......

I apologize if you thought that is what I am doing.

I also have read a lot of those articles and yet have never ran across one of these women. And in my job I have dealt with many women.

This discussion has come up before in my family which has extensive medical personnel and not one of these has ever seen it either.

I won't go into the messy details of how much fluids a healthy 7 lb baby has to have etc...




I guess you missed my statement so I will elaborate..

I commend all women that are out there on ships doing their jobs.

I guess I am coming at this at a bit of different angle...
IF she knew and didn't report it. How many lives did she put in danger.

That why they have NCIS Agents at Float. I am sure they would be able to prove this story as false, if that is really what it is.

Wjy not for now just take it as the beautiful, feel good article?

Humm I did go google this for it was hard for me to believe she did not know she was pregnant.

I know I have heard stories of that happening but never knew of anyone that was small not know it... But seems it happened..

But now if she had always been really thin and gained some weight it could have happened that no one noticed ..

Still hard to believe that she did not know she was....

I have a cousin that was like a pencil I mean skinny. When she got pregnant she gained just enough to wear her brothers jeans and he was thin but not as thin as she was.. It was hard to tell she was pregnant we knew but if you had seen her you could not tell.. cause she wore baggy shirts and jeans..

I have a friend who gained only 6 pounds her entire pregnancy (small thing) and came out of surgery weighing even less..you simply could not tell she was 9 months pregnant, though, in her case, she knew she was.

Ironic for such a wondrous thing to happen on a carrier.

I doubt she put anyone in danger. The carrier is close to Bahrain, the headquarters of the United States 5th Fleet, it was just launching missions into Syria. I think the problem will be the massive costs. First flying the diapers, incubator, formula etc. to the carrier then hours later flying the mother and baby in an incubator with a complete medical team to Bahrain. Then they will have to use a US Military plane with medical equipment and probably medical personnel to fly her and the baby back to the US.

I doubt she put anyone in danger. The carrier is close to Bahrain, the headquarters of the United States 5th Fleet, it was just launching missions into Syria. I think the problem will be the massive costs. First flying the diapers, incubator, formula etc. to the carrier then hours later flying the mother and baby in an incubator with a complete medical team to Bahrain. Then they will have to use a US Military plane with medical equipment and probably medical personnel to fly her and the baby back to the US.


I agree. The fact that the delivery of the baby went well doesn't mean that this incident should be treated as a feel-good story.

Yes, the captain of the ship should feel good knowing that his ship was prepared for anything.

However, the cost to the U.S. government will certainly have military leaders and government officials looking for a means to prevent such an incident from happening again.

Having been on a ship with women and deployed, I'd imagine she did know but didn't admit because most likely it belongs to someone other than her husband