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Monday, November 02, 2009
Air Force Service Runs in the Family
By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Journal Staff Writer
Nathan Lucero has always looked up to big brother Bryan, but when he looks up now it's to see Bryan slicing through the skies in one of those huge C-17 cargo planes.
Make that a huge and very, very safe C-17 cargo plane.
Because big brother Bryan, 34, is Capt. Bryan Lucero, an 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron C-17 pilot.
And because baby brother Nathan, 25, is 2nd Lt. Nathan Lucero, the 5th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron officer in charge of ensuring that the planes his brother pilots are fit to fly.
"It's my job to make sure that the aircraft are safe," Nathan said in August in an interview for the newsletter at Dover Air Force Base, Del. "Every time a plane takes off, I have to be able to say I would trust putting my family on it, and here I literally have to mean it."
It will surprise no one who knows the Albuquerque brothers that things would wind up this way — together, or together as one can be in the Air Force, each on a mission for God and country that continues the sibling symbiosis they have shared since they were kids kicking it on the city's soccer fields.
And if you had any doubt they were brothers, you would need only to be blinded by their identically perfect wide and white smiles, which no doubt their father, Albuquerque dentist Robert Lucero, had something to do with in more ways than one.
(And because I promised, let me add right now that the Lucero brothers are actually a trio — Damon, 28, is the only stateside brother, and though he is not in the Air Force, he is a force on the soccer field as a coach for the St. Pius X High School boy's varsity team, New Mexico Rush league and the NB3 Foundation sponsored by golf great Notah Begay.)
The brothers have always been close, and maybe that's because much of their childhood was spent driving to and from soccer practice, games and tournaments.
That's a lot of togetherness.
"We spent our life at soccer games," said their mother, Linda Barber. "With three boys, you've got to find something like this for them to do."
First-born Bryan, she said, has always been the consummate big brother, proudly serving as role model, mentor and, at times, butt-kicker as the need arose.
"Bryan teases Nathan like you would a little brother," said Nathan's wife, Annalyse Lucero. "They're really cute."
So when school and soccer fields gave way to sky and service for Bryan, it was almost a given that Nathan would follow suit.
"Both have this kind of attitude of wanting to be something bigger than themselves," Annalyse said. "It's important to Nathan to have someone like his older brother to understand those dreams. Bryan has been a big influence."
Bryan, who is married and has two sons, enlisted in the Air Force 13 years ago. Little brother Nathan, who married Annalyse last year, went on active duty two years ago.
That both brothers found themselves on either side of a C-17 was, however, something of a coincidence.
Nathan had envisioned a career in Air Force law enforcement, possibly with the Office of Special Investigations.
But when the plane maintenance position opened up, he took it.
And when Bryan learned his little brother would be deployed to an undisclosed base in southwestern Asia, he pulled a few strings to be allowed to base himself out of there as well.
For about a month late this summer, the Lucero brothers were back together again.
"It was great for both of them, I think," Annalyse said. "They understand everything going on in each others' lives. They are both experiencing the same things."
Bryan's deployment ended, and he returned to his wife and children at Dover Air Force Base, where he is stationed.
Nathan isn't due to return home until January. Two weeks ago, Bryan was deployed again to southwestern Asia. So far, the brothers have not seen each other, but it's probably just a matter of time before they do, their mother reports.
She looks forward to the day when her boys, all of them, are home again, together, as always.
For now, she takes comfort in knowing that two of them are out there on the front lines, brothers in arms, watching each other's backs, as always.
UpFront is a daily front-page opinion column. You can reach Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.
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