Shared duty, diverging paths for twins serving in Iraq

DIYALA PROVINCE, IRAQ

Justin and Jason Cole are identical twins.

They shared bunk beds growing up around Navy bases, took classes together at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach and, later, at Virginia Military Institute.

They received their Army commissions the same day and rose to the rank of captain together during their first deployment to Iraq.

Now 29 years old, they’re deployed together at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Iraq’s Diyala province.

But in recent months, something has divided the brothers.

Jason signed a three-year extension with the Army and collected a $30,000 tax-free bonus.

Justin, in the middle of his third deployment overseas, is leaning toward leaving the Army.

“Being a soldier is great,” Justin said during a recent interview at his unit headquarters. “Being a dad is better.”

The Cole brothers both are discovering the cost of keeping a military family together during a long war.

Despite bonuses of as much as $35,000 for captains who re-enlist, the Army has found it increasingly difficult to keep its young leaders. The Army told government investigators it expects to be understaffed by several thousand junior officers every year for at least the next six years.

Justin and Jason’s mother, Sue Cole, did not think her twins would end up in the military. Their father, Andy Cole, served 21 years in the Navy as a mechanic, then a C-2 pilot. He retired as a lieutenant commander.

The family moved with Andy’s Navy career, eventually settling in Virginia Beach. Despite their “Navy blue” background, Sue said, “the boys loved to play Army.”

The competitive boys joined junior military programs and sports. Both wrestled. The 160-pounders faced each other during high school practices. Justin won every time.

“If you’re going to get beat,” Jason said during an interview at Warhorse, “get beat by someone you don’t know.”

Jason quit wrestling and joined the cross-country team.

The two applied to just one school – VMI. Once admitted, they were assigned separate companies and soon found their own roommates and friends.

“I roomed with him for 17 years,” Justin joked. “Why would I want to room with him for another four?”

But their paths never diverged too far. When Jason joined the Army ROTC, Justin was told he was ineligible because of a high school wrestling injury.

Justin wrote to President Clinton and requested a medical waiver; an Army colonel wrote back and approved the petition.

The Cole brothers were again on the same path.

Report from Iraq

Pilot photographer Stephen M. Katz and writer Louis Hansen spent three weeks with the Virginia Army National Guard's 2nd Squadron, 183rd Cavalry in Kuwait and Iraq.
Take a look back at their travels on their blog

 

The entire Cole family has been touched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In addition to the twins, younger brother Joshua, 24, is stationed in Kuwait with a Virginia Army National Guard unit, the 2nd Squadron, 183rd Cavalry, based in Portsmouth. Their sister Jenell’s husband has also deployed with the Guard.

“They go through things they don’t tell me,” Sue said. “They’re living their lives, and I’m proud of them.”

The twins’ wives and children live about 45 minutes apart near Fort Lewis, Wash.

Justin is the intelligence officer for the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry, responsible for gathering and analyzing information in the volatile province.

On a recent mission, Justin and his soldiers tried to piece together the events around the assassination of a U.S.-friendly sheik and plan a counterattack.

The deployment has not put him into as much danger as his previous tour in Baghdad. Still, he said, “It’s been very long, very frustrating, very tough.”

Jason, who recently transferred to Warhorse, is a logistics officer in the same large brigade. Their paths don’t often cross.

They came into this tour knowing more about what to expect, Jason said.

“We know what we’re headed into,” he said. “I’m not going to say there’s an end in sight. We don’t know there’s an end in sight.”

Sue has seen the changes in the twins after their two Iraq tours.

“It’s aged them – the two of them,” she said. “They don’t tend to take what they have for granted.”

Jason and his wife, Kristin, 29, were high school sweethearts at Tallwood. They had their second child, Tyler Joseph, in September.

The couple have decided to make the Army their career. Kristin is in the Army Reserve and served in Afghanistan as a military police officer. The couple expects two or three more deployments to the Middle East during Jason’s career.

“That’s part of the job,” Kristin said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Jason extended his contract with the Army for three years and collected his bonus just weeks after the re-enlistment program was announced this fall.

“Twenty years?” he asked rhetorically about reaching the military retirement goal. “Sure.”

Meanwhile, Justin and his wife, Maggie, have mulled the decision. Maggie often asks, only half-joking, “Who do you love more – me or the Army?”

The deployments have weighed most heavily on Justin. He and Maggie started their family after his first deployment to Kosovo.

They have three children age 5 or younger. The youngest, Toby, was born in September. Justin could only send text messages to his wife during the labor.

Justin acknowledges that what once was a wonderful peacetime career has been made difficult by constant deployments and separation from his family.

During his first deployment to Iraq, Justin was three days away from coming home. Maggie, who is a stay-at-home mother, and a few girlfriends put up signs and decorated the house for the event.

Justin called during the party and told his wife that his unit’s tour had been extended for several weeks. The women filled the living room with tears, Maggie said.

“I would love for him to be finished with the Army,” Maggie said Thursday in a telephone interview.

Justin is eligible for a $35,000 bonus to re-enlist for three years. “My wife said, 'Maybe if they add another zero to the end of it,’” Justin said.

Justin’s parents and twin brother have encouraged him to stick it out for the financial security.

“There’s no guarantee in the military that he’s going to be alive the next day,” Sue said. But, she added, “I just want them to be secure.”

A few days before Thanksgiving, Justin returned to Washington state for about two weeks of leave. He held his infant son for the first time.

On Monday, Maggie said, they will celebrate Halloween, Christmas, New Year’s, Easter and several missed birthdays.

Louis Hansen, (757) 446-2322,

louis.hansen@pilotonline.com