Sister nULLs, decades apart, reunited at SETAF-AF

VICENZA, Italy — More than a decade after sharing a college dorm room as 17-year-old cadets, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tyrra Wan and Katherine Brennan, a Depar… VICENZA, Italy — More than a decade after sharing a college dorm room as 17-year-old cadets, U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tyrra Wan and Katherine Brennan, a Department of the Army civilian employee, found themselves face-to-face again in an unexpected place: the hallway of the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) headquarters at Caserma Del Din, where both now support the SETAF-AF mission. Neither knew the other was stationed in Vicenza, Italy. Their chance reunion earlier this month rekindled a friendship forged at Mary Baldwin College, now Mary Baldwin University, where they entered the Virginia Women’s Institute for Leadership, which is an integrated program hosted on Mary Baldwin’s campus.

There they became “Sister nULLs,” the traditional title for first-year cadets. For Wan, now the operations officer and budget manager for SETAF-AF, the encounter was a reminder that the bonds formed early in life can endure across decades of military service. Wan did not grow up in a military family, so the transition into a structured cadet environment required her to adapt quickly. Through VWIL, which partners with the Virginia Military Institute’s Army and Air Force ROTC programs, she learned to navigate physical