20 Sets of Military Family Members Serving in the National Guard Deploy to Japan

Twenty sets of families serving in the Minnesota National Guard deployed to Japan earlier this year.

The families are made up of siblings, parents and spouses deployed to the 18th Wing, Kadena Air Base, Japan, the National Guard said in a release.

“The family members serving together embody a profound commitment to service, not only to their country but also to each other, united by a shared sense of duty, sacrifice, and honor and their service to the Minnesota Air National Guard,” 148th Fighter Wing Commander, Col. Nathan Aysta said in the release.

The Minnesota National Guard has previously had several sets of families who deployed together but 20 was a record, with the service describing it as “unprecedented” in their release. The unusual situation highlighted what military service looks like in small-town America and a broader familial trend that experts and sociologists have studied. Meanwhile, the military has leaned into the trend, often recruiting from the families of former service members. The concept has been referred to as the “warrior caste,” according to an analysis by Janine A. Davidson, former under secretary of the Navy and a scholar of civil-military relations.

“We see it across a range of professions where there is a calling that’s higher than just the individual’s career. We see it in medicine, we see it in firefighting, we see it in police officers,” said Kate Kuzminski, director of the Military, Veterans, and Society Program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. “It’s something that you can see yourself serving in given the fact that you’re exposed to it.”

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