The baby girl was found abandoned on an Afghan battlefield in 2019 and Major Joshua Mast, 41, faced accusations of conduct unbecoming of an officer during his plans to bring her to the U.S ...

Once in the U.S., Mast used the adoption papers to get the federal government to take the child from her Afghan relatives and give her to him. She has remained with his family ever since.

Marine Maj. Joshua Mast, arrives at Circuit Court for a hearing in an ongoing custody battle over an Afghan orphan, March 30, 2023 in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) CAMP LEJEUNE ...

Joshua Mast's yearslong legal quest to keep the child, who was orphaned on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2019. Afghan couple accuse US Marine of abducting their baby Mast and his wife ...

Yet in October 2019, Joshua and his wife Defendant Stephanie Mast asked a Virginia family court for temporary custody of Baby Doe, claiming that she was "stateless," and that the Afghan government ...

Marine Maj. Joshua Mast and his wife, Stephanie, arrive at Circuit Court for a hearing in an ongoing custody battle over an Afghan orphan, March 30, 2023, in Charlottesville, Va. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, ...