Omaha, Neb. ? When Jeff Scherzberg found out his three brothers in the U.S. Army Reserves were going to be sent back to Iraq, he decided the best thing to do would be to join them.

All four are now members of the 915th Transportation Company out of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The brothers were at home in Papillion, enjoying a weekend of leave from Fort Riley, Kan., to celebrate Independence Day.

This isn’t Jeff’s first time in the Army Reserves. The 27-year-old first joined up a decade ago and completed eight years of service, but he was never sent abroad.

His three brothers, 21-year-old twins Matthew and Justin and 23-year-old Brett, followed his lead and joined the reserves. In December, the three returned from nine months in Iraq. And in April they learned that after just three years in the reserves, they were heading for their second overseas deployment.

That’s when Jeff re-enlisted.

“I just feel I need to do it as well. They followed me in to it,” Jeff said.

News that the three brothers were going back hit the family hard, their mother, Connie, said.

“They thought that when they came home, they were going to get on with their lives and go to college and be back with their friends,” she said.

But knowing that Jeff — who is so enthusiastic about his deployment — is going to be with them has helped the three brothers who already know what Iraq is like, and how scary working there can be, she said.

When her three sons were sent to Iraq the first time, it was comforting to know that they were in the same unit, Connie said.

“Just because I thought, even if something bad happened to them another one would be there to hold his hand or whatever it took to make him realize that he wasn’t dying alone,” she said.

Connie said she was proud of her sons’ decisions to join the Army Reserves, because “they’re doing the right thing.”

Justin said he and his brothers were close and constantly keeping tabs on one another, even as they were enjoying the weekend celebration at home.

“It goes to another level when you go overseas together,” he said.

Though in the same unit, the four Scherzberg brothers are in three separate platoons, Jeff said. Only the twins share the same platoon.