"Almost a year ago, about the time Barack Obama was being sworn in as the 44th president of the United States, John Spinks and his brother Bob weren’t thinking about politics or government transitions or historical moments.

The Miami Valley brothers were coping with nausea, gasping for breath and fighting exhaustion at close to 23,000 feet as they were making history of their own. By coincidence, the Spinks brothers, both Dayton natives and graduates of Patterson Co-Op High School, summited the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, Cerro Acongagua in Argentina, at 12:09 EST on Jan. 20, 2009 — just minutes after Obama completed the oath of office."