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 COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - For weeks, Chief Warrant Officer Jason DeFrenn's family awaited his homecoming, a trip planned as much more than a simple respite from his second tour in Iraq: The nine-year Army veteran was returning to South Carolina to help his wife give birth. Instead, his loved ones are making plans for the 34-year-old Army pilot's funeral.
DeFrenn's Apache helicopter was shot down on Feb. 2 — two weeks before he was supposed to be back in his native state. Wracked by grief, his wife went into labor early, giving birth to a boy just days after her husband's death.
It's newborn Christopher who's now providing the family a measure of solace. "A healing child," is how Jason DeFrenn's father explains it as he alternately gazes at a photo of the son he lost, and at a card stamped with the footprints of his new grandson.
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