Reunited 10,000 miles away from home

By Roni Gehlke
For the Contra Costa Times

In a country half a world away, two Brentwood brothers reunited amid a backdrop of searing heat and desert sand. The occasion was not intended to be a combat mission but rather a celebration to honor Rafael Borrayo's promotion to U.S. Army major.

The army flew Army Specialist Antonio Borrayo, who is stationed just outside of Baghdad to southern Iraq where Rafael is stationed, to not only witness the pinning ceremony of his brother, but also to participate.

"My brother and I are two opposite individuals; he chose to stay close to home and help my parents run the family business and I left at age 16 to a navy school in Florida," Rafael said. "So to see him here in Iraq and have him pin on the rank of major was just amazing."

In January of this year, Rafael was sent on a 400-day deployment to a small area near Basrah Provence in southern Iraq to serve for the third time in the Middle East. Just a few months earlier, in November, Antonio was deployed for his first time to Northern Iraq for 400 days. Both brothers will still be overseas for several months to come.

"It was awesome," Antonio said about the ceremony. "My brother has had many ceremonies before, but I haven't had the chance to attend a lot of them. But for me to have the opportunity to not only to see him get promoted, but to be the one to pin his rank on him, that was cool. Not too many people would have an opportunity to pin a family member in the military."

Antonio was the only relative at Rafael's promotion ceremony, but Rafael said he was fine with that.

"Two days after my brother left, we got hit with rockets," Rafael said. "We also get occasional small-arms fire and mortars. So I was happy my brother had left. I would never want anyone I loved to come out here. Though if it (the ceremony) was in the states, it would have been great to have the family."

While the brothers were together they got a chance to speak with their mother on the telephone.

"I know my mom has been so worried about us, well mainly Tony, because he is momma's boy and has been next to her his whole life," Rafael said. "So when we received the opportunity to call our mom, via phone, together, mom just broke down and sounded so happy to hear from us both."

The brothers' parents, Maria and Rafael Borrayo, are the owners of El Gallito, one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in Brentwood.

Since it is relatively hard to get to Rafael's location in Iraq, the brothers spend some extra time together after the ceremony. Rafael also was proud to be able to use Antonio's expertise for a mission during his stay.

"He flew in hours before my bimonthly briefing to Gen. Dragon regarding my mission out here," Rafael said. "My mission was to conduct a security assessment of a designated target location in a small city named Umm Qasr. Since my brother was an engineer, I took advantage of his skill sets and scheduled him for the mission."

Rafael said that where he is the conditions are always "red," a military code meaning weapons are loaded and round in chamber. He said it was nice to see his brother in action and he would want to have him by his side if they ran into trouble.

"The mission went well, and at the conclusion of his stay, the operations officer for my task force awarded him with a combat patch of U.S. Forces Iraq," Rafael said.

As an Army paratrooper working for Civil Affairs Special Operations Battalion, Rafael said he has to meet high physical standards. During their time together, Rafael also took Antonio to work out at the gym and on his daily four-mile run in 100-plus-degree weather.

"He did not make the run, but he pushed on like a soldier for two miles," Rafael said.
This may be the last time Rafael and Antonio get to see each other during this tour in Iraq, but Antonio is waiting for a promotion to sergeant and hoping that Rafael will be able to return the favor and attend his ceremony and pin him.

"To be 10,000 miles away and be able to see a family member out here is a little happiness. I was glad to see him. It just made this deployment better," Antonio said. "Maybe it was just for a few days, but it was time well spent with a family member. We've never been so close until I joined the Army. Now we have something in common."