Sergeant Seth Craven was trying to fly from Afghanistan where he was serving with the National Guard to West Virginia to be there when his baby was born. He flew to Kuwait and then to Philadelphia,where storms caused his flight to be cancelled. He stayed in a hotel overnight and was scheduled to fly out the next morning. While sitting on the plane the next morning, there was a maintenance issue that caused that flight to be delayed multiple times.
His story reached another passenger named Charlene. She was also trying to get to West Virginia, but she lives in Philadelphia so her car was at the airport. She and her travel companions decided to drive the 8 hours instead of wait for a flight and offered Sergeant Craven a seat in their car. He arrived at his house just past midnight. His 9-pound, 8-ounce boy, Cooper, was born the next morning.