Baby born on Veterans Day welcomes her soldier dad home
A special Veterans Day homecoming took place at Citizens Memorial Hospital Birth Place when Private First Class Hunter Swearingin arrived home just in time to welcome his daughter into the world.
Swearingin, a radar operator with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, had been deployed and returned to Missouri late Friday night, Nov. 7. Only days later, his daughter, Romy Esme Swearingin, was born at 10:42 a.m. on Nov. 11, 2025 -- Veterans Day.
Romy weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces and measured 19 inches long. She was delivered by Dr. Taylor Pedersen, a family medicine and obstetrics physician with CMH’s Dallas County Family Medical Center in Buffalo, at CMH Birth Place.
Her mother, Kailey Bass of Buffalo, Missouri, said she couldn’t have imagined better timing.
“I was so happy Hunter was home in time for the birth,” Bass said. “She wasn’t due until Nov. 24, but she came two weeks early. It was perfect timing.”
The new father, originally from Humansville, Missouri, has been serving in the U.S. Army for a year and a half. The couple said they were both shocked and overjoyed that their baby girl arrived on Veterans Day, a fitting tribute to her dad’s military service.