Recruiting family welcomes ‘Hurricane Baby’ Published Sept. 10, 2008 By Carol Carpenter Air University Public Affairs MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. -- In the days leading up to Hurricane Gustav's landfall, Staff Sgt. Mike Shoulders, an Air Force recruiter assigned to the 331st Recruiting Squadron at Gunter Annex who lives in Covington, La., watched the weather very closely. His wife, Melody Shoulders, was expecting their third child. The doctors were planning to induce labor on Sept. 2. When it looked as though evacuation was inevitable, he and his wife decided to travel Aug. 29 to his mother's house in Kentucky. They did not make it. Mrs. Shoulders began showing signs of labor, so the couple brought their two children - McKeyla, 3, and MacKenzie, 16 months - to Maxwell AFB. When they arrived, Mrs. Shoulders was 2 centimeters dilated. Joseph Michael Shoulders was born at Jackson Hospital Aug. 31 at about 8:30 p.m. "The staff, doctors, nurses, everybody took good care of us there," Mrs. Shoulders said. The couple is hesitant to leave the Maxwell AFB area too soon. Their second child had serious health problems early in her life, and the parents are determined to avoid risky actions now. Also, they have found a family they didn't know they had. "Everyone in my squadron at Gunter has just been great," Sergeant Shoulders said. "They have showered us with gifts, cooked us meals, visited in the hospital, and some of these people I have never met before." (Excerpt of full article available at http://www.maxwellgunterdispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080904/DISPATCH01/80904031/1115/DISPATCH.)