Soldier reunites with family after deployment and quarantine period

MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) Army Sergeant and Seaside High School alumna, Chris Benedict, hugged his fiancé and daughter, Bailey, for the first time in almost a year, Tuesday. The last time the family was together, Bailey was just three weeks old.

"You don't really realize how fast she is growing until you see her in person. When you see her in pictures you make your own assumptions on how fast she is growing. When you see her in person you see how big she has gotten. That's probably the hardest part," said Benedict.

The family was reunited at the Monterey Regional Airport, one month later than expected. The pandemic extended Benedict's 10-month long deployment to Africa.

"Right now, people are stuck together and maybe not always loving it. That's really what we were wanting this whole time. You're missing that one person," said Benedict's fiancé, Ashley Conner.

Like all military returning from service overseas, Benedict was required to quarantine for two weeks at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas. "It was kind of like jail. You couldn't go anywhere. They checked your temperature twice a day and brought food to you," said Benedict.

Benedict's arrival came just in time for a milestone he couldn't miss: Bailey's first birth. "It's everything now that he's back. Everything is good now. Everything is right," said Conner.