CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait - Brothers fight each other growing up all the time, but two brothers fighting together in the 1st Infantry Division have become brothers in arms.
Sgt. Joseph Hohmann, 21, a Targeting Analyst in Intelligence and Support Company, Division Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion, 1st Inf. Div., and Staff Sgt. Jay Hohmann, 26, a Radar Repairer, who served with Company G, 2nd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Inf. Div. were your typical brothers growing up together in Sheboygan, Wis., not always getting along and not very close.
Both, joining the Army and both getting stationed at Fort Riley in the 1st Infantry Division changed their relationship.
With a lot of the same interest in music, video games, sports and even food, Joseph said they had a lot in common. "It was very interesting, to see how we had hated each other and despised growing up with one another, and after being apart for six years we had really become almost the same person," said Joseph.
"It was really nice, I know for him when I came to (Fort) Riley because he had more of a family element that he hadn't had for a really long time, and it was kind of a security blanket for me in a way because I managed to go somewhere where I already knew someone," Joseph said.
Jay left with the 2nd HBCT for a tour in Iraq and was home a short time before Joseph was deploying to Iraq right after his big brother.
"It was awesome because we were able to do Thanksgiving and Christmas together," said Joseph. "We really had as much time as we could hope for together before I left."
Their relationship has grown through their experiences both in life and with the Big Red One.
"There is something about knowing that we had both gone through the same things with enlisting," said Joseph. "Us both enlisting and us being the only two Hohmann boys, at least in our minds, we have made this kind of a family thing.
"The training that we have both gone through and being there for one another, it is one of those bonds that will never go away."
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