Seeing Double: Twins serve the Air Force Reserve

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Shawn Rhodes
  • 927th Air Refueling Wing
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  When they were growing up in the small town of Independence, La., Milton and Wilton Addison became used to people seeing double when they walked by. Thirty-nine years later, the pair are still turning heads, this time for a different reason. The identical twins are both serving their country as members of the Air Force Reserve, one a lieutenant colonel and the other a staff sergeant.

"It's scary!" said Staff Sgt. Chantell Trudell, the career development counselor for the 927th Air Refueling Wing, stationed at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. "They're so similar, and even sound alike."

Folks around the reserve unit are used to seeing Staff Sgt. Wilton Addison behind the Force Support Squadron counter. When his brother Milton visits during Wilton's training assemblies here, heads turn. Their journey in the Air Force reserve started when Milton was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force in 2001.

"I joined the Army in 1994, and was offered a commission. When I got out in 2001, the Air Force picked me up," said Lt. Col. Milton Addison, the commander of the 159th Civil Engineer Squadron at Naval Air Station Joint-Reserve Base, New Orleans. "I didn't want to live my life saying 'What if,' so I joined."

His brother Wilton was soon to follow.

"I saw how good my brother was doing in the Air Force, so I joined the reserves," said Staff Sgt. Wilton Addison, a knowledge operations apprentice with the 927th Force Support Squadron. "My brother and I have a lot of stories to share now that we're both in the Air Force."

Lt. Col. Milton Addison visited his twin brother recently to see his promotion ceremony. Milton shares his brother's humble attitude and quick smile. They both agree being twins has helped them grow closer over the last three decades.

"Ever since we were little, we were supportive of each other," said Milton. "We both have an older brother who we used to blame things on as kids. It's easy when we were both pointing our fingers at him."

Even though Milton vastly outranks his twin brother, Staff Sgt. Wilton laughs when he proves his seniority.

"You see," Wilton said with a smile, "I was born three minutes before him. I figure that makes me the senior."