by Sgt. Mike MacLeod 82nd Airborne
GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Warrant Officer Weldon Malbrough Jr. goes about his business on this dust-choked, dirt-basket-rimmed base in Ghazni province.
He is one of many - a paratrooper among paratroopers of the 82nd Airborne Division’s “Devils in Baggy Pants” 1st Brigade Combat Team.
Pictured: Warrant Officer Weldon Malbrough Jr., an intelligence officer deployed to Afghanistan with the 82nd Airborne Division's 1st Brigade Combat Team, shows a family photo with younger brother, Philip, and twins, Jessica and Jordan. Like Weldon, the twins both enlisted and are also deployed in Afghanistan. Sgt. Jessica Malbrough is a medic with the 4th Infantry Division in Kandahar, and Staff Sgt. Jordan Malbrough is a radar operator with the 25th Infantry Division in Khost province.
The 30-year-old force-protection staff officer is also one of three Malbroughs now deployed to Afghanistan. Jordan and Jessica, the family twins, followed Weldon into the Army, and with the pace of deployments in recent years, it was only a matter of time until their deployments overlapped.
In recent years, the idea of families sending multiple children to the frontlines has become part of the national consciousness thanks in large part to the movie, Saving Private Ryan, in which all but one brother is killed during World War II, and the last of four living brothers is caught up in the invasion of Normandy.
Windy has seen the movie, but it’s one she has never internalized, with three of her four children deployed to Afghanistan.
“It’s something they chose to do. To keep peace with my mind, I try to think happy thoughts,” she said, who still lives in metropolitan New Orleans where she raised her children. Her fourth, Philip, works on an offshore oilrig.
“There is no worry-free time for mom,” Windy said. “My kids are my heroes.”
“She is such a strong woman,” Jessica said.
Whereas Jordan enlisted at 17, Jessica earned a college degree before enlisting. She was interested in an Army program to become a physician assistant or nurse, but it required three years of service. While her brothers pushing her hard to “drop a packet” and become an officer, she chose to enlist as a combat medic.
“I didn’t want to push papers for three years,” Jessica said.
Sgt. Jessica Malbrough deployed for the first time with the 4th Infantry Division’s 4th Brigade to Kandahar a year ago. During that time, she has worked in the orderly room, provided cultural support on missions to capture insurgent leaders, and called in medevac helicopters to evacuate wounded soldiers.
“In the Army, you meet people and gain experiences that you just can’t get anywhere else,” she said.
The Malbroughs are a tight-knit family. Both sets of grandparents live within a few blocks.
Being away from home for so long is difficult, Jessica said. It helps that she can call the man she looks up to the most, Weldon, or her best friend Jordan. Not only can they relate to her Army service, they’re even in the same time zone, which is a big deal when one is literally on the other side of the world from home.
Back home, Windy uses her kids as a conversation piece with patrons of the accounting office that she manages. Most of the time, she feels like she is serving alongside them, she said.
“People just say, ‘Wow.’ They don’t understand how three siblings can be there at the same time,” she said. “They all have great love for their country.”
People occasionally try to give sympathy to Weldon because they know that, as the oldest, he feels responsible for the welfare of his brother- and sister-in-arms.
Weldon has seen how the Army has shaped his brother, Jordan, into the man he is, and he understands and supports the opportunities that Jessica is pursuing through the military. He and Philip always pushed her to make the most of her talents.
“We all enlisted during a time of war,” Weldon said. “We all knew we were going to deploy. It was only a matter of time until they overlapped. I appreciate people’s sentiments, but we all took an oath to do what we are doing.”
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