None of them were supposed to be here. Two pairs of brothers thrown together as if a game of jacks were being played with aircraft and aircrew; each one being snatched up and dropped randomly at a Royal Air Force base in the eastern Mediterranean. But before anyone could swipe all the Air Force aviators back up, the pairs of brothers turned a chance deployment into a family reunion while fighting the global war on terrorism.

Tony and John Mauer, and Nick and Eric Adcock are deployed to the 401st Air Expeditionary Wing supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. "John and I have spent more time together on this deployment than we have in the last 10 years," said Col. Tony Mauer, 401st AEW vice commander. His home station is RAF Mildenhall, England, where he commands the 100th Operations Group. His brother, Maj. John Mauer, is a navigator assigned to the 970th Airborne Air Control Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

Oregon natives, Tony is a KC-135 Stratotanker pilot, and John navigates the E-3 Sentry airborne warning and control system aircraft. Although only one year separates the two, their career paths couldn't have been farther apart. "I truly enjoy the Air Force. After 20 years, I still love what I'm doing," said Tony, an Air Force Academy graduate who has commanded at the squadron and group level and is set to command the air refueling wing at Fairchild AFB, Wash. [Below: Col. Tony Mauer (left) and 1st Lt. Eric Adcock]

"I've had many opportunities to leave throughout my career and fly with the airlines, but I love being an Air Force pilot. I have always been proud of being a tanker pilot," he said. While Tony was in the academy, John enlisted after high school and after a few years on active duty, decided he wanted to fly. Then-Sergeant Mauer finished his degree in the evenings, was accepted to Officer Training School and earned his commission.

"I spent my career in the active duty as a (weapon systems officer) in the F-4 (Phantom) and F-15E (Strike Eagle). Tony and I have always had a brotherly rivalry. I flew fighters and Tony never passed up an opportunity to let me know 'no one kicks ass without tanker gas'," said John. "I've never been stationed anywhere near Tony, so serving under him on this deployment has been a unique experience. For now I can't tell him 'you're not the boss of me.’ Actually, I'm very proud of him.”

John retired from active duty in 1999 and after three years as a defense contractor, he heard of a new program that let active-duty retirees join the Air Force Reserve. He was one of the first officers to be approved for the new program. [Below: First Lt. Eric Adcock (right), a KC-135 Stratotanker co-pilot, watches as Airman 1st Class Kenny Harwood, boom operator, refuels an E-8C Joint Stars aircraft. Adcock's older brother, 1st Lt. Nick Adcock, was the pilot of the E-8C being refueled.]

"I still had some fight left in me, and luckily the 970th gave me another chance to serve," said John. In mid-January 2003, he completed AWACS flight training and was deployed to Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, six days later.

"We spent 60 days flying Operation Northern Watch missions, and I fully expected to fight the war from Turkey,” he said. But, that did not happen. His entire unit moved with very little notice.

“I knew Tony had also been deployed, but I didn't know where to, so it was awesome to have him meet me when I arrived," he said. Intersecting only for brief moments in the air to pass some fuel was an appropriate end to their time together here.

"The first time I refueled John he was flying an F-4 in 1986, and we thought this could be a fairly common event for us over the course of our careers," said Tony. "However, it took 10 years for it to happen again and this time in an F-15E. With John retiring soon after that, we thought it was our last opportunity. Now that John has returned to flying AWACS and we've done our third refueling, I don't want to say it won't happen again. With me going to Fairchild and continuing to fly KC-135s, who knows, stranger things have happened."

Although the Adcocks have not been away quite as long as the Mauers, Nick, a E-8C Joint Stars pilot, echoed the same sentiments that he and Eric, both first lieutenants, have spent more time together in two months than in the last five years combined. Flying has been in the blood of the Adcock family long before Nick and Eric earned their Air Force pilot wings. Raised in Cabot, Ark., they literally had a lot of family to “look up to.”

"Our grandfather was a pilot, along with our father, uncle and cousin," said Nick, the elder of the two brothers by one and a half years.

After high school Nick and Eric went their separate ways. Nick went to the University of Arkansas and Eric went to the Air Force Academy a year later. After graduating from college, Nick earned his wings and has been flying E-8Cs, while Eric has been flying KC-135s. "This is our first deployment together," said Eric, a co-pilot deployed from the 351st Air Refueling Squadron at RAF Mildenhall. "I heard through a briefing shortly after we arrived that E-8s might be arriving but I had no idea Nick was coming."

Shortly after Nick arrived, he and Eric passed each other on the road.

"I was driving a 17-passenger bus for our squadron after we landed. I passed Eric as he was walking by and honked the horn at him. We called our mom that evening and I said, 'You're never going to guess who's here with me,'" said Nick, who is deployed from the 16th Airborne Command and Control Squadron at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. When Eric refueled his older brother over the Mediterranean, they said they were both excited.

"It was a highlight just to see each other on the deployment," said Eric. Eric was able to watch the air refueling in the back of the aircraft while the boom operator delivered fuel to his brother's aircraft. Both Adcocks said the flight was definitely something they would remember throughout their careers.

As for the next time they see each other, Eric was quick to point out that it better be this summer.

"He's my best man in my wedding," he said. As aircraft and people deploy back to their home stations and the air war over Iraq comes to an end, so must the short reunion of brothers. Call it chance, fate or even luck; the bonds that tie brothers are special -- no matter where you end up in the world. [ANN Thanks Capt. Shane Balken, 401st Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs]

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