Twin brothers who grew up on the beaches of Noosa have been reunited at a key military facility on the sands of the Middle East.
Flight Lieutenants Aiden and Zac Pattison were both deployed to the Al Minhad Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.
Work schedules often kept them apart, with Zac usually posted to RAAF Base East Sale and Aiden to RAAF Base Townsville.
But recently, Zac joined his older brother at the Australian Defence Force’s Middle East headquarters in the UAE, to take over from him as one of the project engineers.
They got to spend Australia Day together, celebrated with barbecued lamb and enjoyed performances from the Forces Entertainment Tour.
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The twins chose engineering as a career, with older brother Aiden joining the Air Force first and Zac following after finishing university.
Aiden focuses on expeditionary engineering, especially around airfield construction and contingency response, while Zac specialises in civil engineering and airbase operations.
Their rivalry began with Aiden arriving into the world 18 minutes before Zac.
Aiden said they were not identical twins and claimed he got the good looks and his brother got the glasses.
Zac was quick to counter and said he had the upper hand when it came to parkrun, but there wasn’t any solid evidence to prove this, according to Aiden.
“It was pretty cool knowing I would be taking over from my brother in the Middle East,” Zac said.
“We don’t get much of a chance to catch up, so it has been great to spend time together and beat him in another parkrun.”
They help manage a multimillion-dollar engineering infrastructure development project at the base, with an emphasis on long-term sustainability.
