Twin brothers' paths take them to the skies

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Agneta Murnan
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  First Lieutenants, and twin brothers, Jared and Andrew Scherff accomplished a shared life dream of becoming military pilots at Vance Air Force Base, Friday, Oct. 23, when 1st Lt. Andrew Scherff crossed the stage to receive his Air Force wings.

"It's been a long process," said Lt. Andrew Scherff, who was applying to ROTC programs and the U.S. Air Force Academy when his brother, Jared, began his own military career by joining the Army National Guard with a friend during high school.

Through a long series of events, both Andrew and Jared both made it to Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training at Vance in back-to-back classes -- 09-15 and 10-01.

Andrew Scherff began ROTC at The Ohio State University the fall of 2003 while his brother began Army helicopter mechanic training.

"I started to talk to my brother about my experiences, and it didn't take too much convincing to get him to apply for Air Force ROTC at Ohio State," said Andrew. Jared started at Ohio State the spring quarter of their freshman year and started ROTC that fall.

They completed ROTC together for three years, both receiving pilot slots during their junior year. "Our dream sheets coming out of ROTC were the same. It just worked out that we both were assigned to Vance," Andrew.

Prior to the Vance assignment however, there were temporary assignments for the Scherff brothers. Jared went to Dover AFB, Del., where he was a squadron executive officer and Andrew went to Whiteman AFB, Mo., where he was a scheduler.

Once at Vance, Jared was assigned to Class 09-15 and flew the T-6A Texan II with the 8th Flying Training Squadron and Andrew was assigned to Class 10-01 and flew the T-6 with the 33rd Flying Training Squadron.

"Our mom said it was tough," said Jared. "I would go from being happy about learning the information, or getting through an event, then I would worry about the same event for my brother three weeks later. My parents went through the same thing. They were happy for one of us, but then worried about what would happen to the other one," Jared said.

"We had a very supportive relationship going through pilot training," said Andrew. "It was great to have Jared in the class ahead. He shared information on what to expect, gouge (reference materials), and he gave me a lot of good advice. We were able to help each other out a lot studying for check rides," Andrew said.

The path to wings continued as the Scherffs each went through a track-select process where student pilots are selected to continue the last phase of undergraduate pilot training in either the T-38C Talon, the T-1A Jayhawk, the UH-1 Huey Iroquois helicopter or the T-44 Pegasus.

Both were selected for T-1s, and ironically, they both ended up sharing a flight room with "Mike" Flight in the 32d Flying Training Squadron where both of their classes were assigned.

"I just thought it was funny watching the IPs (instructor pilots) and schedulers trying to figure it out," said Jared. "We would get scheduled for each other's flights and simulators."

"It happened in T-6s too," Andrew said. "They scheduled me for Jared's dollar ride while I was still in academics. They tried to fly us together once. There was a time in T-6's when Jared was doing his final contact check ride and I was doing a refresher," he said. "We were the only ones in the pattern at Kegelman Auxiliary Airfield. They were trying to figure out who was making which radio call because our voices were so much alike."

As Jared neared graduation and was slated to fly the C-17 Globemaster III at Travis AFB, Calif., Andrew's graduation was still a few weeks away and he did not yet know his assignment.

"I wasn't able to attend Andrew's assignment night because I had water survival training during that time and was in the middle of SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) training during his graduation," said Jared. "It was disappointing, especially because my dates for SERE were changed just prior to his graduation. I originally thought I would be able to make it. But because we're both in the military, we understand that you go where you're told," he said.

The military told Andrew that while he wouldn't be flying the same aircraft as his twin, he would be flying a very complimentary mission: aerial refueling in the KC-135 Stratotanker. While Andrew missed having Jared standing in the crowd during assignment night and on graduation day, he knew what graduation of undergraduate pilot training really meant.

"It has been our dream to be pilots for our entire life," Andrew said. "Our parents are very proud to see us both go through the very long process of commissioning and pilot training. This was the accomplishing of a pretty big goal for us," he said.

The Scherff brothers won't split paths yet. Both KC-135 and C-17 follow-on training takes place at Altus AFB, Okla.

"Obviously we're both ecstatic that we graduated," Andrew said. "Between our assignments to Dover and Whiteman for 15 months, plus the 14 months of pilot training, that's about 2.5 years just in active duty time for us to get here. We are looking forward to getting into the operational Air Force, getting the mission done, and hopefully we'll see each other in the area of operations," Andrew said.