Posted on 10/12/2004 9:14:06 AM PDT by TexKat
NAPERVILLE, Ill. - A Marine who is in a hospital bed recovering from wounds he suffered in Iraq is now a father five times over.
While Sgt. Joshua Horton, 28, recuperated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, his wife, Taunacy, delivered quintuplets Monday in Naperville.
Neither the hospital nor military officials knew whether Horton was aware his babies had been born. He was heavily sedated and had not been able to speak to his wife, officials said.
Horton knew Taunacy was expecting quints when he was deployed to Iraq, but felt duty-bound to honor his commitment.
"He wanted to give some of the other fathers a chance to come home and serve their families," said Liz Robinson, his partner on the police force in nearby Aurora.
His three girls and two boys weigh between 1 pound, 9 ounces and 1 pound, 15 ounces, and were in critical but stable condition Monday evening in a neonatal intensive care unit. An Edward Hospital spokesman could not immediately provide an update on their conditions Tuesday.
Horton could have stayed home to take care of his pregnant wife and two older children, said Marine Maj. Rick Coates, the information officer for the 2nd Battalion 24th Marine Regiment.
But that wasn't in his nature. "He's just the type of guy who doesn't say no," Robinson said.
Horton arrived in Iraq a month ago and was wounded Thursday during intense fighting south of Baghdad.
The Hortons met while he was in the Marine Corps and she was in the Navy. Both completed their service and moved to Oswego, but decided after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that one of them should re-enlist. Horton enlisted in the Marine Reserves.
"They felt patriotic enough that they needed to do it, and they decided it should be him," said Anne Watts of Blackfoot, Idaho, Taunacy's stepmother.
The couple had tried for years to conceive a third child and succeeded after Taunacy started fertility drugs.
Horton is to be flown to the Bethesda Medical Center in Maryland soon, Coates said.
re 19, Amen
God Bless this soldier and see him home to his new babies soon. And God Bless those little darlings and let them all live to see their Daddy when he gets home from the hospital.
Naaaaaa....doesn't take more than, oh, 2 seconds. You'll pass the test. :-)
I join in your prayer for the babies and their dad!
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