CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar -- Most fathers are happy to receive a tie or some other type of keepsake from their children for Father's Day -- especially once their children are grown.
For Sgt. 1st Class Robert Scott, he will have something far more valuable to see while he is forward deployed to Qatar this Father's Day. He serves alongside his oldest son, Staff Sgt. John Scott, and both are members of Centurion Company, 1st Battalion, 114th Infantry Regiment, New Jersey Army National Guard at Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar.
"It's a satisfying feeling with your children being in the military and seeing their accomplishments," said Robert, who is the Base Defense Operations Center noncommissioned officer in charge for Area Support Group-Qatar. "If anybody has an opportunity to do it, do it. If you could, give it a shot because it's nice to have somebody around."
The Scott's family history of military service extends back to World War II. Robert's father, and John's grandfather, was drafted into the 114th Infantry Regiment for World War II service. Robert first enlisted in the Army in 1985 as a military police officer. After serving for six years in assignments in Panama, Korea, California and Missouri, he returned to civilian life and eventually became a police officer.
John, who is now the headquarters platoon sergeant and operations noncommissioned officer for Centurion Company, first enlisted at 17, while still a senior in high school, in 2006. This led to a fateful question John asked his father.
"He was active duty long before I even joined, then he decided to get out," John said. "When I joined, I can only remember me looking at him and saying, 'don't you miss it?'"
With that simple question, the ball began rolling and shortly thereafter Robert again found himself at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, this time training to become a 74 Delta: chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) specialist.
"He went in the Guard so I had him recruit me," Robert said. "At the time, they had a little bonus program so it made him a little extra money."
In addition to Robert and John's military service, Robert's second oldest daughter Jamie is a National Guard military intelligence officer and youngest son Robert is currently serving on active duty in Germany. Robert has four other children, one who manages a bar and restaurant in New Jersey, another who is a firefighter in New Jersey, one who recently finished high school and one more who is still in school. In total, their ages range from 32 to 15.
Robert, a Brick, New Jersey native, is proud of all of his children and happy to see that they've applied the discipline and structure that his military training instilled in him.
"He always had that military mentality that everything needs to be dress right dress, everything needs to be lined up perfectly. We grew up with it," said John, a Toms River, New Jersey native. "Him being a cop didn't help."
This is the second time the Scott's have been deployed at the same time. The first time, in 2008 to 2009, Robert was at Camp Bucca, Iraq, and John was at Camp Cropper, Iraq. While the two were separated by more than 300 miles then, they now have only about 300 feet between them.
"We would talk to home more than we were able to talk to each other," Robert said of that 2008 to 2009 deployment. "This is kind of like we're both at home. We'll run into each other. The communication here is a lot better. It's face-to-face. It's good to see everything's going good. I can tell by the way (he's) looking at me that something's up."
John, who is also a police officer in New Jersey, likes to spend his off time, or "overtime" as he calls it, visiting with his dad in the BDOC, sharing a meal together at the dining facility, smoking cigars or doing typical father and son type games.
"The other day we were just talking and we just started tossing a roll of duct tape around, just catching back and forth," Robert said. "If there was a ball there we probably would have picked it up and just started playing catch. We were both standing there throwing it back and forth to each other, he looks at me and he goes, 'This turned out to be more fun than I thought.'"
Whether it's the father-son relationship or the military rank structure, John remains deferential to his father when it comes to off duty activities.
"I don't know, he outranks me so whatever he wants to do," said John, who is on his fourth tour in the Central Command area of operations. Once to Iraq in 2008 to 2009, once to Afghanistan in 2009 to 2011, Qatar in 2014 to 2015 and again to Qatar now.
What the future holds for both remains open -- and competitive. Robert said he wants to finish out his current contracted time of two years and see what options are available. John, who has 13 years of service, is looking for a broadening assignment as an instructor in the New Jersey Army National Guard next.
"He's hoping I either die or retire because my brother was a retired sergeant first class," Robert said. "I'm going to stay in. I'm going to drive him into the dirt. He'll have to shoot for E-9 first."
"He'll retire, I'll outrank him. Then I'll rub it in his face," John said.
The jokes continue and the smiles grow as father and son talk about the unique opportunity to serve together while deployed.
"How many other people get to go overseas with their father? I don't hear much about it," John said. "I'd say it's a rare case. I get to have family support while deployed. I don't have to reach back home to see what's up."
