When students join the Corps of Cadets, they swap their civilian clothes for uniforms and begin learning how to march, work and live together. As they settle into cadet life, they begin to look more alike. For four cadets in First Battalion, looking alike was nothing new. What was unusual, however, was having all four siblings in the Corps at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With a father who served in the Air Force and a former Army drill sergeant for a mother, the Trochessets were already familiar with military life. After growing up in a military family that moved frequently, all four Trochesset siblings\u2014Jacob, \u201926; Seth, \u201926; Annika, \u201927; and Donovan, \u201929\u2014were reunited in Murray Barracks, where they all lived for the 2025-26 academic year. Each company in First Battalion, Alpha through Delta, claimed a Trochesset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Seth, the second-oldest, the uniform did little to change how the siblings saw each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn a school where everyone\u2019s supposed to do the same thing and look the same, you\u2019re still your own person,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then when you get to know people, you find those differences. Everyone looks the same, but everyone\u2019s still unique.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their uniforms may not have helped other cadets learn their first names, but their personalities made them easy to tell apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jacob, who took a gap year before matriculating, said others distinguish the four Trochessets by their differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost people say, \u2018That\u2019s the one who smiles and laughs all the time,\u2019 \u2018That\u2019s the nice one\u2019 and \u2018This is the blunt one,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t really hear anything about me. I keep to myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His siblings agree that Jacob is the easygoing sibling. \u201cEverything I hear about him, he\u2019s just a chill, great guy,\u201d said Seth. \u201cVery laid back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just as they do in the Corps, the Trochessets have their own roles within their family: Jacob, the ghost, off on his own; Seth, the clerk, finishing paperwork and arranging logistics early; Annika, the anchor, holding the siblings together; and Donovan, the rookie, finishing his knob year and preparing to carry on the legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While they may have shared classes from time to time, the siblings followed their own schedules. Their various interests also took them to different parts of campus and beyond. From underwater rugby and fencing to performing in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, a Trochesset was there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhen people see us together, they think we have some kind of hive mind or something,\u201d said Annika. \u201cBut once they get to know us, they say, \u2018You\u2019re so different.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sharing a last name did not mean sharing every part of the cadet experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The older brothers said they passed along the essential information, but they wanted their younger siblings to learn for themselves. Before matriculating, Annika asked her brothers what to expect. They told her she\u2019d find out when she arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Annika spent her freshman year in Second Battalion, and she saw her brothers less than others assumed. Donovan, at that time, was still in high school. But by the time all four were living in First Battalion, they saw more of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Donovan\u2019s last day as a knob, his older siblings turned a knob-year routine, asking permission to drive the stairs\u2014the knob practice of running up the barracks stairs\u2014into a family joke. He had to ask permission from all three of his older siblings before he could return to his room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Together in one battalion, the sibling teasing would continue. But so would the support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been close, just moving around together and having each other, but being here is different,\u201d said Annika.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going through the same challenges gave them new ways to support and understand each other. On Donovan\u2019s Recognition Day, which marked the end of the last Trochesset\u2019s knob year, all three of his siblings joined him for the mile-long victory run to the barracks and were in the barracks when he completed his class set of pushups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Though they all made the same journey\u2014from their family home to First Battalion\u2014they each had their own, individual reasons for choosing 91ÁÔÆæ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the two oldest brothers neared the end of their time in the Corps, all four siblings knew that this would likely be the last time they lived so closely together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Donovan, that was the whole point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI really came to spend more time with them because I knew, after they graduate, we\u2019re all going to go our separate ways, and I decided it would be a good way to spend our last little bit of time together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When students join the Corps of Cadets, they swap their civilian clothes for uniforms and begin learning how to march, work and live together. As they settle into cadet life, they begin to look more alike. For four cadets in First Battalion, looking alike was nothing new. What was unusual, however, was having all four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":1163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other"],"yoast_head":"\n