Brothers to report to armories Monday
They admit it was unusually impulsive joining the Virginia National Guard with little if any discussion beforehand.
Twins Seth and Eli Lovell, 22, aren't generally spontaneous when it comes to major life changes, but once one of them was in, both of them were in.
"Seth had been talking to the recruiter, but I hadn't," Eli Lovell explained. "I didn't really know what I wanted to do."
So one April afternoon, the 18-year-old Wilson Memorial High School student walked into the recruiter's office, asked some questions and signed on the dotted line. He didn't say much when he got home.
"I didn't tell them that day," he said. When he told their father, Ed, he heard the expected, "I can't believe you did that without talking to us." Their mother, Jan, cried. Older brother Josh was surprised, but supportive.
When he told his twin brother, he got the expected response as well.
Seth joined up with Uncle Sam, too.
"We've always been competitive," Seth explained with a grin.
Both serve with the 116th Infantry Brigade Combat Team. Eli is a medic with a forward support battalion out of Charlottesville, and Seth is a member of Bravo Co., 3rd Battalion out of the Woodstock armory.
On Monday, the Lovell twins will report to their respective armories to prepare for deployment. On June 26, they will depart for Camp Shelby, Miss., for more training before heading overseas.
They've been busy.
Seth married his sweetheart, Brittany, on June 9. They had planned to marry June 30, but the deployment changed that. And in their honeymoon phase, the newest Mrs. Lovell is sharing Seth with friends and family before he departs. Eli's wife of nearly a year, Katy, is doing the same thing.
Eli had gotten word in April that he would be deployed. He was in class at Bridgewater College when a sergeant called his cell phone. He was assigned to ship out with a cavalry unit in May, he learned.
It didn't take long for him to realize that his brother's infantry unit would be deploying as well. Separate deployments and separate departure dates could place them in different parts of the Middle East.
But first, he had to tell his wife. He left campus and took a walk by the North River. When Katy called, he asked her to come to the river.
"I tried to tell myself that wasn't the reason," Katy said. "I could see by the look in his eye what it was."
The next step was trying to transfer into Seth's unit. So far, he's in the same battalion, but the two are still in separate units.
"We'll try again when we get to Mississippi," Seth said.
The first time the twins were separated for more than two nights was when Seth went to James Madison University and Eli headed to Bridgewater. Basic training and more extensive training was planned for the next February, so they would be together on their birthday as usual, but the family would miss out on it. As it turned out, Seth was in the hospital with pnuemonia, so he stayed home for the Feb. 11 celebration, but Eli was gone for seven months training as a medic in Texas.
Then came Seth's first deployment — he left in 2004 for 18 months, with nearly a year in Afghanistan.
Accustomed to speaking by phone several times a day, they only were able to speak for a few minutes maybe once a week. Phone calls from war zones are limited to calls through satellite phones at the military base. If they aren't deployed together, phone calls between the two will be difficult at best.
Older by seven minutes, Seth is the source Eli looks to for advice for his first deployment — from what to pack to what to expect.
And their brides are going through the same adjustment. Older by three years, Katie Lovell looks to 19-year-old Brittany for ways to cope with the deployment.
"She's just a wonderful person, so it will be easy to talk to her," Katie said. And this time Brittany will have a close friend who will understand the impact the separation takes on someone.
"I'll be able to cry to her," Brittany said.
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