Navy widow learns gender of their baby with help of fellow Marines

HAMPSTEAD, NC - It was a bittersweet moment as a mother-to-be and widow of a fallen Navy sailor learned the gender of their baby after enlisting the help of his comrades. 

Cassie Lohrey's husband, Hospital Corpsman 1st class Ryan Lohrey, was killed in a plane crash in Mississippi July 10 while headed to Arizona for military training. 

The couple had only been married for a month, and she found out three weeks after the crash that she was pregnant. "This baby has given her a reason to celebrate life again and not just walk through it," Lohrey's photographer, SaralynJ Photography, posted on her Facebook page. 

Lohrey hoped to honor her husband's memory by announcing the baby's gender on Veteran's Day. She asked a few of his friends to help, and 16 servicemen signed up as the word had spread. "What an epic gender reveal!" the photographer posted.

All together and on cue, the men, standing along the fence line in the backyard of Lohrey's home, popped open their containers at the same time and pink confetti shot into the air, revealing that the couple's baby is a girl. 

The Lohreys' baby is due March 18, 2018. 

Because of issues with the couple's paperwork, the photographer says Lohrey is not receiving benefits after her husband's death, so her sister has set up a GoFundMe to help.