Photo By Staff Sgt. Terrance Payton | Brothers, Spc. Duane Vinson (left) and Sgt. Bryan Vinson (right), returned to Fort...... read more read more
FORT BRAGG, N.C. – Paratroopers with 1st Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division returned home throughout February, concluding a nine-month deployment to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The recent redeployment ceremony at Green Ramp, was one of many held to welcome home nearly 700 Paratroopers as they reunite with family and friends.
Among the returning troopers were brothers, Sgt. Bryan Vinson and Spc. Duane Vinson, who are both infantrymen and assigned to Company C, 1st Battalion, 505th PIR.
Duane, who is a squad automatic weapon gunner, was excited to deploy with his brother whom he looks to as a role model.
“We were extremely close growing up,” said Bryan, a team leader in 3rd Platoon. “We grew up playing sports and always looking out for each other. Honestly, we’ve almost been inseparable.”
The boys, who are from Hendersonville, Tenn., said that they share a special relationship with their father who spent time in the Army as a cavalry scout and is also named Duane.
“He made sure that we stayed close to each other. He taught us a lot about being men and a lot about being soldiers,” said Duane.
“He understands the kind of bond that you share with fellow soldiers,” said Bryan. “To see him and be able to share our experiences with him; he has an understanding of what were talking about, that’s what so great about him being prior service.”
Bryan, who has been at Fort Bragg for about a year longer than his brother, said that he worried about his younger brother.
“As an older brother I naturally feel protective of him,” said Bryan. “I never really understood how my parents felt about me being here or deploying until he came here and we were deploying together.”
Their parents had natural concern for the boys while they were gone. They said that their father dealt with the deployment well, and helped their mother deal with the absence of her sons.
“My mother was nervous but she was almost happy that we would be deploying together,” said Duane. “She felt that if we deploy together that there would be chances that we would see each other and be able to watch out for each other.”
The brothers said they saw each other about five or six times during the nine-month deployment as they both were in northern Afghanistan.
“We really didn’t have the capability to contact each other. It was more knowing when our teams were going to certain areas that we would cross paths,” said Duane.
“It was almost exciting because sometimes we would go out and not know that the other would be somewhere and run into each other,” said Bryan. “It was a real uplifting thing to see him.”
“It was like a piece of back home over there. I could tell him stories like old times,” said Duane. “It definitely helped.”
Duane said that they already had a great relationship but the deployment brought them even closer.
“We grew up in a good family and have been extremely close our entire lives,” said Bryan. “We already had a strong bond, but being here together and deploying together that bond has increased tenfold.”
“Yeah I have my biological brother here with me but none of this deployment would have been possible without the guys in our company, leaders and the guys who followed us,” said Bryan. “We were out there together but those guys looked after us. We couldn’t have done any of this deployment or this job without the support of any of those people.”
| Date Taken: | 03.09.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 03.09.2012 15:50 |
| Story ID: | 85014 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Hometown: | HENDERSONVILLE, TENNESSEE, US |
| Web Views: | 1,458 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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