{"id":241,"date":"2010-04-16T15:24:51","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T15:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/p=?241"},"modified":"2010-04-16T15:24:51","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T15:24:51","slug":"brave-soldier-meets-baby-son-for-the-first-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/us\/news\/brave-soldier-meets-baby-son-for-the-first-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Brave soldier meets baby son for the first time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A brave soldier has returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan to meet a very special person for the first time. <br><br>Private James Rhodes, of the 2nd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, was &quot;overjoyed&quot; to finally hold his baby son Liam, who was born two weeks before his time on the frontline finished, Keighley News reports.<br><br>&quot;It was awesome to see him for the first time,&quot; he said. <br><br>Private Rhodes&rsquo; comrade Private Richard Whiteoak also returned from his time in Afghanistan on April 2nd, receiving a medal for his efforts in the country.<br><br>He explained: &quot;I have wanted to be in the army all my life. It&rsquo;s nerve-wracking having all my family here at the ceremony but it is nice to get a medal.&quot;<br><br>Worcestershire soldier Private Alex Kennedy, 19, recently became the youngest person in more than 40 years to be awarded one of the UK&rsquo;s highest wartime honours &ndash; the Military Cross &ndash; for his bravery while serving on the frontline in Afghanistan. <br><br>Posted by Samantha Thompson <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ADNFCR-2867-ID-19726103-ADNFCR\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.directnews.co.uk\/feedtrack\/justcopyright.gif?feedid=2867&amp;itemid=19726103\"\/><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One member of the armed forces has met a very special someone on returning from a tour of duty in Afghanistan. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Brave soldier meets baby son for the first time - Forces Penpals US<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/forcespenpals.net\/us\/news\/brave-soldier-meets-baby-son-for-the-first-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Brave soldier meets baby son for the first time - Forces Penpals US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One 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