Air Force twins retire together

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Keith A. James
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Identical twin brothers Jared and Jason Tuckett retired from the Air Force June 10 on Torii Station, Japan.

Master Sgt. Jason Tuckett, 3rd Intelligence Squadron mission management superintendent, made the more than 7,500-mile long trip with family to Okinawa, Japan, from the states to retire alongside his brother, Master Sgt. Jared Tuckett, 390th Intelligence Squadron formal training section chief.

The two brothers said it was completely random on the decision of retiring together.

"I extended an extra year at Kadena for my children's schooling and called my brother one day and found out he would be retiring around the same time I would," Jared said. "So we then decided to do it together."

Retiring with a combined 41 years of service, the brothers shared more than just the same birthday. They also shared the same career field as cryptologic linguist analysts.

"We both learned Japanese through missions with our church and I decided I wanted to become a linguist in the Air Force," Jared said.

Jared enlisted in the Air Force in August 1992 as a Hebrew cryptologic linguist analyst, and would later go on to also learn Chinese Mandarin.

He would also go on to play a role in getting his younger brother, Jason, to enlist, welcoming him into the world of a linguist.

"After a year in I talked him into joining; I told him some of the things I was doing and thought it would be a good fit," Jared said.

Though his brother's encouragement helped, Jason said joining the Air Force was already on his mind.

"We joined to serve; our father was a part of the U.S. Air Force Reserve and after retiring, he worked as a civil service member working on the F-16 Fighting Falcon so we knew which service we would join," Jason said.

As staying proficient and current on their different languages was important, it created some challenging aspects of the job.

"Being an airborne linguist, I personally didn't like to fly that much and getting over air sickness was a big challenge for me, but it was beneficial in the end," Jared said.

Despite the many challenges, both brothers worked off each other's strengths, weaknesses and experiences.

"We shared a lot of notes," Jason said with a laugh.

During their enlistments, the duo worked together at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, as instructors teaching the incoming members of the career field.

"I enjoyed being an instructor," Jared said. "I loved being able to teach them about the job and tell them about my experiences in the Air Force and working along my brother and even fooling him a bit too."

"We made sure that they were prepared and knew what they were getting into," Jason added.

Now that they are retired, Jason plans to return to the Air Force as a civilian doing the same job at Fort Gordon, Ga., while Jared plans to finish up his education degree and work for Department of Defense school systems in the Pacific.

"That's one thing you will get from the Air Force; you're part of a bigger family," Jason said. "Doesn't matter where your serving they'll take you in."