My Brother Tom

My brother Tom is the youngest in the family. He came along 7 years behind everyone else and was named after our grandpa. My parents divorced when he was about 5 and he lived with my paternal grandparents for a while. They were too old to raise a young boy but it was a necessity at the time. He went to a different school district than my sisters and I so we didn't see him except on weekends. He later lived with our older brother, our sister, our mother ........ he was moved around a lot and I always wondered how he was able to get through school. Our cousin Matt is just a week younger than Tom and they were and are, as close as brothers. They both enlisted in the Army before graduating in 1984 thinking they would get to spend their enlistment together. The Army works in strange ways, though, and Matt ended up in Germany while Tom went to Korea. One tour was enough for Matt and he got out. Tom decided to reenlist and he's still in. Besides Korea and duty in the states including Texas, California, Missouri, and others, he has served in Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is presently stationed in Germany.

I am not close to Tom. I hardly know him as a brother since he has been traveling around for almost 25 years with not too many trips home. I worry that we may never get the chance to really know each other since he has talked about remaining in Germany when he gets out of the Army. He is doing his part for the U. S. though, and I am very proud of him.