Here Comes Operation Desert Stork

By Janice Castro

Talk about faith in the future. Remember the baby boom? That started when America's fighting men returned from World War II. Now, eight months after the first soldiers, sailors and airmen returned victorious from Operation Desert Storm, military bases from San Diego to North Carolina are bracing for their own baby boomlet. Since the troops got home, positive pregnancy tests have tripled at Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The expectant mothers include Desert Storm vets -- five of the six women in one unit. In San Diego 318 Marine wives have been sent to community hospitals for prenatal care because the docs at Camp Pendleton are swamped. Doctors at Fort Stewart, Georgia, expect to deliver 40 babies on Christmas -- three times the busiest day in memory. No more silent nights for those folks.

With reporting by Sidney Urquhart