KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan, July 11, 2011 -- A pair of U.S. Army 1st Lieutenants were promoted to Captain on Forward Operating Base Salerno, July 2.
Making this particular promotion special, however, was that the two lieutenants, Jon and Nathan Dyer, originally from Bristol, Maine, are not only brothers, but identical twins.
The two have always looked up to those who serve their country, said Nathan, an AH-64D Apache pilot and platoon leader with the 10th Combat Aviation Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, Task Force Tigershark.
Both their father and brother also served the country, in the Air Force and Coast Guard.
“It is one thing to talk about service and the desire to give back to the country that has given us so much,” he added, “but it is entirely another thing to actually put your life and energy toward the service of our country. My brother and I shared a desire to put our commitment and desire to serve to the test and join the military as our father and older brother had done.”
They both attended West Point together, where the studied the same major and participated in the crew team, and graduated in the top five percent of their class said Jon, the Logistics and Supply Officer for the 40th Engineer Battalion, 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, TF Ram.
The brothers, though in completely different career fields, still are able to learn from each other’s experiences, said Nathan.
“We quickly came to see how different [our duty positions] are,” Nathan said,” but also how they complemented each other and how we could work better together.”
The event also marked the first time in two and a half years that the brothers were able to see each other.
“My trip to Salerno had only one purpose,” said Jon, who is based out of Mazar-e-Sharif in northern Afghanistan, “to pin on captain’s bars with my brother.”
“It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to both pin on captain rank while we are both deployed in Afghanistan,” he added.
Related Links:
STAND-TO!: The U.S. Military Academy at West Point
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