OMAHA, Neb. – Four close brothers are being sent to Iraq together, all in the same Army Reserve unit, and for three of them it’s the second tour of duty there in less than a year.
The Scherzberg brothers – Jeff, 27, Brett, 23, and 21-year-old twins Matthew and Justin – all are due to ship out late this month or in early August as members of the 915th Transportation Company based at Council Bluffs, Iowa, their mother, Connie Scherzberg, said Monday.
All four were at home for the Fourth of July in Papillion, just outside Omaha, enjoying a weekend of leave from Fort Riley, Kan.
Jeff Scherzberg had joined the Reserves a decade ago and was discharged after eight years of service without ever being sent overseas.
Three years ago, his younger brothers followed his lead into the Reserves, and last year they spent nine months together in Iraq in the 360th Transportation Company, based at Fort Carson, Colo.
Brett, Matthew and Justin Scherzberg returned in December, just in time to see their original unit, based in Omaha, sent to Iraq in January. Since they had just come back, they were assigned to the Council Bluffs unit because it was not expected to be deployed, Connie Scherzberg said.
In April, however, they learned that their new unit was being assigned to Iraq duty. That’s when Jeff Scherzberg re-enlisted.
“I just feel I need to do it as well. They followed me in to it,” Jeff Scherzberg said.
Though they’re in the same company, the brothers are in three separate platoons, Jeff Scherzberg said. Only the twins share the same platoon.
Learning that her three youngest were returning to Iraq was hard to take, their mother said, but added that it is comforting to know that all four will be together.
“Just because, I thought, even if something bad happened to them another one would be there to hold his hand or whatever it took to make him realize that he wasn’t dying alone,” she said.
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