Eugene Willett rubs it in like any older brother would. Rick Willett accepts taunts with a younger sibling's good nature.

They work a short sidewalk apart, in different buildings of the Tri-County School District. Eugene teaches in the newer structure.

"Rick is happy that he doesn't have air-conditioning," big brother says. "I'm happy that I do."

It hardly matters this day, a cool September having greeted the opening weeks of school in Jamesport, Mo. The open windows in Rick's classroom bring in a breeze and the hoof-on-pavement clop of horses passing in the Amish-distinctive community.

Students have departed but the teachers make preparations for the following day. It will be another hour or so before the Willett brothers leave for their homes on adjoining property south of Gallatin. The commute takes 17 minutes "as long as you don't get behind a combine," Rick says.

This short, joint ride through the rolling landscape of Daviess County seems at odds with the farther reach of their vagabond childhoods. Sons of a Tennessee-born father and a Canadian mother, they went where the military steered their family. The boys and a sister were all born in different states, from Vermont to California.

Then, the brothers began service careers of their own, and the military postings and deployments created a fraternal travelogue: Germany, Spain, Taiwan, Japan, Puerto Rico.

Ask from where they hail, the answer gets complicated.

Having forgone roots for the sake of country, they set down retirement stakes in Northwest Missouri. No family member had ever lived there. They just liked the place. Then, their story gets more interesting.

The Willett brothers began second careers as teachers in a small-town school, a choice that, if easy laughter provides a clue, they clearly relish.

Born two years apart, the Willetts were practically twins in their careers. Eugene went into the Navy in 1973, Rick following in 1975. In the Seabees, they spent at least two years in the same battalion, same company, same living quarters.

"Needless to say, we get along really well," the older brother says.

Eugene departed the Navy after four years and went to the University of California-Davis, where he earned a civil engineering degree. Rick would follow this same course two years later, also to become an engineer. Both would eventually get master's degrees.

The brothers went into the Air Force, Rick concentrating on communications systems, satellites and intelligence, and Eugene rolling into special tactics, a job that took him to war zones in Panama, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 1982, Rick, his wife and his parents drove through Northwest Missouri on their way to the World's Fair in Tennessee. What he saw on that trip planted a seed. Sixteen years later, and stationed at U.S. Strategic Command in Omaha, Rick began looking in earnest for retirement land.

In Northwest Missouri, he found a rural setting, a decent cost of living and four agreeable seasons. Plus, good folks.

"In Missouri, people wave at you when you're in the car," Rick says. "Some states, like California, not necessarily are they waving at you."

The brothers would split the acreage they got in 1999. When Rick, a lieutenant colonel, retired from the Air Force in December 2003, he moved to the region and began substitute teaching. A Tri-County math teacher left, and school officials asked if he would be interested in taking the job. He now starts his fifth year.

A colonel, Eugene retired to Daviess County in 2007. He asked the school if he could help his brother coach softball and track. The school noted the need for a science teacher.

Both praised Missouri's alternative certification program, a means by which non-traditional students (say two trained engineers) can share their expertise as teachers. With the required course work, though, Eugene admits, "It seems like you have to go through a number of wickets to get there."

Rick says the brothers have more to pass along than chemical equations and calculus theories. Among the 72 or so students in the high school, lessons also get shared about personal persistence. The Willetts' parents lived on a sergeant's pay, once arriving at a California posting with 25 cents to spare. The boys used the GI Bill and their own labors to pay for college.

"If they try to say, 'We don't have money' ... well, neither did we," Rick says. "You can say, hey, come on, don't sit there, you can do the same thing. If you want it, it's there."

Eugene says satisfaction comes from the interaction with students and the light that comes on when they learn. It also seems an extension of the family service mentality.

"By the nature of us having been in the military, we always need something bigger than ourselves," he says. "Now, I like to be in a job like this where I contribute to the community around us, contribute through the kids."

If their business is serious, their banter stays light. Asked for their ages (Eugene is 54, Rick 52), they suggest descriptions to accompany them. "Young and vibrant," Eugene says.

"They look so much younger," Rick contributes.

Their careers mirrored, their "retirement" careers in motion, talk of age seems only for jest. The school year beckons.

Ken Newton can be reached at kenn@npgco.com.