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CJTF-OIR mission brings twin brothers together during deployment

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Jonathan Hehnly
  • 386th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
IRAQ (AFNS) --  Throughout the history of the military it has remained common for generations of men and women to follow in their family members’ footsteps and serve their country proudly. It’s also not unheard of for siblings to join together and serve together.

For Master Sgts. Daniel and Scott Hose, the sons of a retired senior master sergeant, they did both these things, attending Air Force basic training together in 2001. After basic the two went to separate duty assignments, each following their own career path and moving up in rank. Spending 17 years on active duty, their paths rarely crossed, that is until recently.

When Daniel received orders to Iraq, he thought it would be similar to his five other deployments, but shortly after being in country, his twin brother, Scott, notified him that he was deploying as well. Much to the brothers’ surprise, they were not only both being deployed to Iraq, in support of the Combined Joint Task Force–Operation Inherent Resolve mission, but they would also be assigned to the same group, the 370th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group.

“It’s pretty cool considering the last time we were together was when we were both stationed in Italy; Danny says, it was before he deployed, but I think it was before I deployed,” said Scott jokingly, who is on his fifth deployment. “We both (had a permanent change of station) from there, you know life happens, and we tried a couple of times to meet up but something always comes up. It was funny, when he found out that he was coming over here I didn’t have the tasking yet; mine fell pretty short notice and he was already over here.”

Daniel, the NCO in charge of vehicle maintenance with the 442nd Air Expeditionary Squadron, and Scott, the NCOIC of weather assigned to the 370th AEAG, Detachment 1, rarely see one another. Both brothers think it has been about seven years since they last saw each other. Usually one is changing duty stations or one is deployed.

As soon as Daniel knew Scott was coming to Iraq he wanted to know the possibility of his twin coming through Baghdad on the way to his deployed location.

“It’s interesting that he just happened to come through here at Baghdad on his way down to his location,” said Daniel. “So I actually got to see him for the first time in seven years on the back of a C-130 (Hercules), which was pretty interesting.

“When I knew he was coming in I figured he would be hungry so I got him a to-go box and walked out there,” said Daniel. “Of course he’s on the back side of the plane. Everyone is sitting there staring at me because I have this to-go box with a cheeseburger and fries. He’s sitting there with a natural face and was just like, hey.

“When you see your family or brother down here it really hits you, it just hits your heart,” said Daniel. “I hadn’t seen him in seven years so I started to tear up a bit. I went to go give him a hug; you know how you hug your family, like a full-blown hug. My brother’s like, ‘hey don’t do that on the plane, there’s people around.’ That’s just the way he is. No emotion. It’s his personality. It was still cool we got to see each other for about an hour before he took off.”

Scott, though more straight-faced and reserved, stated he was very happy that his brother was able to come out and meet him on the plane.

“He started to get emotional but that’s just him. He’s more emotional than I am; he always has been. If you notice anything about us, he’s very open. I’m more socially awkward, if you will,” said Scott. “It was really great to see him though and I can’t wait for him to come up here.”

To Scott’s delight, Daniel’s role as NCOIC of vehicle maintenance had him forward deploy to Scott’s location and they were able to spend a little more quality time together and catch up.

“This deployment was weird because as soon as I landed here and walked into the TOC (tactical operations center) I didn’t even meet anybody and they all knew Danny and were like ‘hey we know you,’” said Scott. “Actually a couple of guys thought I was Danny. Everywhere I go here somebody knows him. Danny’s always been the social butterfly. He goes around and talks to everyone.”

Even though Scott and Daniel have different personalities and are separated by distance they’ve always maintained a close relationship. The two are already planning to meet up and get their families together once back in the states, and this time they are not planning on waiting seven years.

“Yea, seven years… It took a lot of people by surprise because family usually sees each other once a year,” said Daniel. “I haven’t seen my parents for seven years either. Between deployments, moving, marriages, kids, I think we just kind of went our separate ways. Taking leave and going halfway across the country isn’t always the easiest, but after this trip here we are actually talking about him coming out to California.”