It's a question no expectant father would want to ask, especially with his wife in the front seat of his car: "Anyone know how to deliver a baby?"

But Sgt. Dominik Marciano got the answer any expectant father would want to hear, thanks to a 20-year-old military policewoman just about to leave her shift at a Fort Carson, Colorado, gate.

"I was like, 'I do!,'" Pfc. Laryn Rodgers remembered saying. "'Let's do this!'"

And so Marciano's Mazda became a delivery room the night of Jan. 14, with Rodgers prepping his wife, Lindsay, for the big moment based mostly on her observance of animal births at the family farm in southern Illinois. Everyone assumed their positions, and "several pushes later, we had little Giovanni," Rodgers said in a Thursday interview.

That was far from the end of the drama, which was first reported by The (Colorado Springs, Colorado) Gazette,

"He started turning blue ... instead of pink and crying," Rodgers recalled. "We all kind of looked at each other, and something had to be done."

Rodgers said she remembered her father using a suction device to remove blockages from the airways of newborn animals. Such a device isn't exactly a standard-issue Army item; she sucked the mucus out with her mouth instead and, to the relief of the entire car, "he finally cried."

Medical responders and firefighters reached the scene about that time and took over, said Rodgers, of 984th Military Police Company, 759th MP Battalion.

Sgt. Marciano was able to cut the cord in the front seat of his car before his wife was transferred to an ambulance.

The husband said his wife was in labor with their first child — Kinsley, now 3 years old — for about seven hours.

"We knew that my son was going to come quick, but we didn't think two-hours quick," said Sgt. Marciano, of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 299th Brigade Engineering Battalion, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division.

The plan had been to take Kinsley to an on-post babysitter, then head to the hospital. Little brother had other ideas, and Kinsley stayed in a small office near the gate with another soldier while the delivery unfolded.

The Marcianos plan to remain in contact with their impromptu midwife regardless of where future assignments may take them.

"This isn't something you kind of brush off," Dominik Marciano said. "She brought my son into the world and made sure that he was healthy. ... I know that we're definitely going to keep in touch."

About Kevin Lilley

Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.

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