Siblings in the service

The strong bond between service members in the military is practically familial.

For four siblings in the Duman family, that’s literally true. Out of seven siblings, Tristan Duman, Sam Duman, Eli Duman and Grace Duman, are all active members in the military.

Tristan was the first sibling to join. He is now a staff sergeant in the Air Force. He graduated from Clarkston High School in 2015, joining right out high school.

He attended basic military training, then technical school at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, to learn about plane engines. He’s been stationed at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and Kadena Air Force Base, Okinawa, Japan, and now serves at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., working on B-1B planes.

Sam graduated from CHS in 2018. He did one semester at Walla Walla Community College and then joined the Marine Corp. He did boot camp in San Diego and has been stationed in Okinawa and now is at Washington, D.C., where he is a sergeant.

Eli graduated from CHS in 2019 and is also a sergeant in the Marine Corps. Eli and Sam have the same job working in information technology at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Both have a background and training as engineers for satellite communications.

“We’re just like a help desk,” Eli said. “Glorified IT basically.”

Eli did his basic training at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego. Then he went to Marine Combat Training camp in Pendleton, Calif., and from there went to Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, for tech school.

Eli had his first duty station at Camp Lejeune, N.C. He’s done other training, deployments and exercises in places like West Virginia, Arizona, San Clemente Island, Calif.; Estonia; Okinawa, Japan; the Philippines; and Twentynine Palms, Calif.

Grace graduated from CHS in 2020 and joined that same summer. She started boot camp, then combat training, military police school and then went to her first fleet unit.

After that she was selected for being a K9 (police dog) handler and went to her basic handlers course in Texas. Her first duty station was in Quantico, Va., where she was assigned a dog, JJ, a Belgian Malinois. JJ was a patrol explosion detection dog, meaning he was trained to detect explosives and bite people. JJ was Grace’s responsibility to train and work with for three years.

“I got really lucky, because I got a really good dog,” Grace said. “It was everything I wanted it to be.”

Staying in the K9 field is difficult, so Grace, who earned the rank of sergeant, called around to different kennels and the Marine Corp Recruit Depot in San Diego was her best chance of staying in the K9 field. Now she works as a trainer for the handlers at the kennels in San Diego.

The reason for service

While the four siblings chose to serve in the military, each had a different reason for enlisting. Tristan always wanted to be a pilot, but it didn’t work out. So he thought the next-best thing would be to work on them, so he works in engine maintenance.

Sam thought the military would be a good opportunity. While he did consider the Air Force after Tristan joined, he changed his mind and joined the Marines.

“I just wanted to try something challenging,” Sam said, particularly the physical challenge the Marines offered.

Eli was already considering joining the military but he knew he was going to join when Tristan did. But Eli also went with the Marines.

“I just went for the best,” Eli said.

Grace knew that she wanted to be in the military to be a dog handler and trainer. Originally she was planning on being in the Air Force because that’s what branch Tristan was in. But when she was a senior she talked with the Air Force recruiter.

“He didn’t sell me,” Grace said. “I talked to the Marine Corps (recruiter) and it was everything I was looking for. It sounded like the biggest challenge.”

Grace said that the Marine Corps has the highest standards and she liked the camaraderie.

Even though Tristan was the first to join, he doubts his younger siblings were entirely influenced by him.

“I definitely was not leading the trend, because everyone else promptly joined the Marine Corps after I went Air Force,” Tristan said. “I don’t know what happened there.”

Being a military K9 handler

Grace knew she wanted to be a K9 handler because she grew up around animals and was good with them. But it was a gamble to be a K9 handler. She had to volunteer, then be selected for it; there was no guarantee she would get it.

“That’s all I wanted to do in the military was be a K9 handler,” she said.

Although there were hard parts of the job too, just like any other, Grace enjoyed her time with JJ.

“I was extremely blessed to have been able to do that because, I mean, it’s the best job in the Marine Corps,” Grace said.

But when she moved to San Diego to become a trainer she had to say goodbye to JJ after developing a strong bond with the dog in their years together.

“Even though I knew it was coming, it was still very difficult,” Grace said.

In her job as a trainer the difficulty is training the people, not the dogs. Grace has to teach people how to handle their dogs and resolve problems that come with training.

Working on military planes

When most people think of the Air Force they envision a military pilot as seen in movies like “Top Gun.” Even though pilots get the spotlight in the Air Force, Tristan said they are aware of the team effort.

“There’s a whole lot of different jobs that go into supporting the aircraft, and it’s a lot of work to get them off the ground,” Tristan said.

Tristan said the amount of support personnel is “staggering” from finance, food service, airfield management and aircraft maintenance. Tristan is an engine specialist and the maintenance unit is broken up into different specialists.

Crew chiefs launch and recover the aircraft and do general maintenance tasks, like checking oil, fueling, tire pressure and inspections before and after flights.

If there’s something the crew chiefs finds that needs to be fixed, that’s when a specialist is called, like for the engine, hydraulics, fuel, avionics and weapons.

“You get to get to know everyone and all the different sections and help each other out when you can,” Tristan said. “We pretty much know everyone a couple months in.”

Tristan’s favorite job has been working on the F-15C planes when he was in Okinawa. Working on those planes had a quicker pace and wase more efficient, even if it sometimes meant longer hours.

“Working on fighters was really cool. I liked doing it a lot better than what I’m doing now for sure,” he said.

Now he works on B-1B planes, which was originally developed as a strategic bomber and was nuclear-capable during the Cold War. It’s made to fly low to the ground and to fly under the radar using terrain, mostly for dropping weapons, reconnaissance and as a show of force.

Working on the same island

Eli, Sam and Tristan have all spent time overseas. For Tristan his time in Okinawa was a favorite, partly because he enjoyed the work and also because his two brothers were also stationed there for six months.

“That was really cool,” Tristan said. “The odds of that are pretty astronomically low.”

Many people there speak English and Tristan said it was easy to navigate with lots of interesting areas to explore. They would often all hang out on the weekends.

“But just having someone like a family member over there that I knew, that I could rely on if I needed something or whatever that was,” Tristan said. “That was a huge help.”

Of all the places he’s lived and worked, Japan was Tristan’s favorite.

“I would go back in a heartbeat if I could,” he said. “It was a good time. I mean, Okinawa, that’s a tropical island, 70 degrees all the time.”

Tristan isn’t alone in wanting to do more time in other countries

“I think I’d like to do more time overseas, it was fun,” Sam said.

Eli liked being stationed in other countries, but also enjoys his time in the states.

“In general, as long as I’m around other Marines, it’s a good time,” Eli said.

Although Grace hasn’t been stationed with her siblings, when she was in Quantico her brother Sam was stationed in Washington, D.C. They had a couple months together before Grace moved to San Diego.

Working together at the Pentagon

While the three brothers’ time together in Japan came by chance, Sam said the time he and Eli worked together in Washington, D.C., was more deisgned.

“(Eli) requested to be in the same spot, so it worked out that way,” Sam said.

At the Pentagon, Eli and Sam are working next to each other. Working with siblings has the potential to create problems, but Eli said they work well together “90% of the time.” It doesn’t bother the brothers or the people they work with either.

Although Eli and Sam share the same rank, technically Sam is the noncommissioned officer in charge, meaning Eli is under him. But Sam doesn’t often have to pull rank with his brother.

The one issue they have faced is that they share the same last name.

“So there’s a lot of confusion because there’s two Sergeant Dumans,” Eli said.

Even though the last name causes confusion Sam said most people know them by their first names too.

Eli said working at the Pentagon isn’t as exciting as it sounds because most of the time they are fixing computers, doing networking and “helping out people that are a much higher rank than ourselves.”

Eli and Sam like having a family member close by. Eli said the two are making the most of their time on the East Coast by traveling to different states and hiking.

“Hiking is a big thing in the Marine Corps, for sure, especially over the other branches,” Eli said.

When Eli and Sam were in Okinawa they decided to hike from the north to the south tip of the island. They did the 83 miles in three days. In Washington, D.C., Eli and Sam ran the Marine Corps Marathon.

Getting the siblings together

With four siblings in the military it’s not often all their schedules align.

“Trying to get everyone together at once is a challenge for sure,” Sam said.

Eli said this November was the first time all the siblings were home together since the summer 2019. They all made it home for Thanksgiving for a few days.

But they have other ways of keeping in touch.

“Thank God for phones, because that’s what we use,” Grace said.

She said they have a family group chat and will FaceTime on their phones. Sometimes they will meet up if someone is on mission or doing a training exercise close by.

Even though Eli and Sam work together, being all together creates a different dynamic.

“It’s a little more chaotic when we all get together,” Eli said.

With three Marines and one Air Force member, the military competition comes out. Sam said when all the siblings are together they tease “the guy in the Air Force,” but Eli said Tristan gives them a hard time too.

“I call them crayon-eaters every chance I get,” Tristan said, in reference to an online trope associated with the Marines. “There’s a lot of jokes about the Air Force too. I definitely rag on them as much as I can. But I am proud of them, though; it’s all in good fun.”

Grace noted that the sibling rivalry isn’t as strong as when they were younger, and they don’t bring up military rank.

“As far as branch to branch, I think I can speak on behalf of all of us that we’re all kind of jealous of the Air Force,” Grace said. “But yeah, of course there’s going to be a little bit of banter.”

While the siblings can be competitive and tease each other, Grace said they’re all supportive of each other.

Sounds just like family.

Brewster may be contacted at kbrewster@lmtribune.com or at (208) 848-2297.