Inspirational stories posted by veterans, active military, family & friends telling how they successfully found and reunited with their old friends & family, enjoyed a reunion together, along with the feelings and emotions that were evoked.
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You know the old saying, "I liked this person from the first time I laid eyes on him." I met Lance Corporal Jerry Sharp at Camp Hauge, Okinawa, in 1963. We became good friends even like brothers from the start. I remembered he was from Oklahoma and while in the Marine Corps, his mother moved to New Mexico. I left Okinawa in the spring of '64. We always said that we would keep in touch. It took me 43 years to locate him. He now lives in Yuma, Arizona. He is a retired Staff Sgt.
Thanks so much VetFriends.com for your help and genuine concern for locating this long lost buddy of mine.
Corporal Darrel W. Qualls, USMC 61-65
Growing up, I never asked questions about my Dad's time serving in the Navy during World War II. When I first met my husband, he was very interested in my Dad's stories of the war and could not believe that I was never interested because as he would say, "Your Dad is a part of history." As I listened to my Dad tell about his past, I soon realized how interesting it truly was and I could also see how he would light up with each memory. Well...the quest was on. With the help of the internet I posted messages asking if anyone served aboard the USS Frament DE 677/APD 77 during World War II. The messages went unanswered for years until I found Vet Friends and posted the message again. Within a few months I got a direct hit! A man that served aboard my Dad's ship! He actually had the ship's registry and emailed it to me. I again turned to the internet and began searching the names. It took some time, but I was able to find 70 men. Unfortunately, 50 of those are deceased We had our first reunion April 28, 2007 in Albany NY to tour the USS Slater with 5 men in attendance. There were tears,laughter and lots of catching up. It was truly the greatest gift seeing all of these men together after 60 plus years. I knew how happy this made my Dad, what I didn't realize is how happy I have made these other men. We are having another reunion this June with 10 men and families coming. Thanks Vet Friends!
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Not long ago, I put a picture on the VetFriends web site of myself shaking hands with the Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1970. His name was General Chapman. The picture was taken on a 2 day R&R at China Beach, Viet Nam.
A couple of months later, I received an E-mail from VetFriends saying someone was trying to get in touch with me.
It turned out to be the photographer of that picture and a friend that went with me on that same R&R. His name is Perry "Mac" McCormack. We have since been exchanging emails and he has even added a few pictures of his own to VetFriends too. He also was the official driver of the Commandant's Jeep.
It was fantastic to hear from him.
Thank you VetFriends!
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When the USS Midway returned to San Diego and opened as a Museum, I was one of the first to visit her. My wife gave me tickets to visit for Christmas in 2004. I am now a permanent member and visit often, as being aboard her was more exciting than anything else I did in my Marine Corps career, including Nam.
Well, upon entering the first exhibit, I recognized someone. I looked at him and said "I know you"! It was Art Lockwood. He was a Gy Sgt aboard the Midway the same time I was.
The reason this was such an amazing coincidence, is because we were both Gy Sgt Marines, both in Avionics, and both out from El Toro California with VMFP-3's Detachment III, with 3 RF4B Phantom Jets to help support a far east cruise for 6 months. I snapped a picture and we have been in touch with each other since.
This was 30 years ago. This picture is on VetFriends and because of it, I have heard from other Marines that were out with us at the same time. It is very heartwarming.
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Well I would just like to thank all of you responsible for VetFriends.com as I had decided to work on a reunion of the 590th Transportation Co. for those that were in the unit between 1961 and 1964 time frame. And after 40+ years of separation it was a much more monumental task than I had figured until I stumbled upon VetFriends.com.
But to make a long story short I was able to locate about 20 former members of the 590th and so I went ahead and set up a reunion in Branson, MO. and we had 12 of us that actually made the reunion. It was so nice to meet back up with all those friends that hadn't seen or talked with each other for over 40 years. We now have set up a 2005 reunion in Branson again for Labor Day weekend.
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Bill Braden & I were "Best of Buddies" in Grade School (lst 5 grades). We moved away from ALA, and then moved back in l958 as Juniors at Woodlawn High, in Bham, WEB SITE: www.WoodlawnHigh.Org (Class of 59).
He was in the Army in the 101st Airborne, in Viet Nam & I was in the USAF, AUG 59-Jan 67. Once on leave in l963, we got together at his parent's home, & then he & his dad took me back to the farm. We lived at Coalburg ALA, where Lassiter Mountain Race Track is now located, & after that I lost track of him.
Over the years, I tried to find him to no avail, but when the WOODLAWN site mentioned "Re-Union" I thought I could find him, but he wasn't listed, so I started putting emails all over the internet. One night I got a call, & it was Bill. It seems that he has a daughter living about 10 miles from me, IN OKLAHOMA, while he's still in Birmingham, ALABAMA, at Vulcan Materials. Now, I'm Retired.
In 2003, just before Thanksgiving, he came to see his daughter & we had our own "Mini-Reunion" just the two of us, at the "Old Country Buffet" a Local Restaurant. We have been on the internet & on the phone several times, I talk to him about www.VetFriends.com & together we share the info with the others we find.
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After leaving the Air Force in 1972, I took a job as a civilian employee in Saudi Arabia in 1977. I met and became friends with a retired Army buddy named Silas Brown who was working for the same company at the same location. After completing my contract, I returned to the States and maintained contact with him for several years. As Time passed I lost track of him, but he was always on my mind.
When I joined Vet Friends, I read about the email locator service, and sent him an email. Fortunately he had also become a member, and responded to my email. We talked on the phone several times in the last few years, and finally in September 2004 while on a trip out West, we were able to meet in El Paso, TX for a short visit. It was a wonderful moment that we will both remember for the rest of our lives, and we owe it to Vet Friends. Thanks for making it possible.
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I would like to share with you my reunion story. I started looking for my old company after 43 years. Vet Friends is what got me started with their info and help over the past 3 years. Now I have had a reunion at my place for about 10 of us. It has been great. This year in June we are having our reunion and planning on having 52 men from the 574th trans, with their families. If it hadn't been for Vet Friends I would have only kept track of one man in IOWA. Thank you VET FRIENDS for getting me started. We love our vets. God bless you.
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Through VetFriends I'm on a roll. I just had another reconnect with an old Marine Corps Buddy. His name is Lavester Talley. We met over 54 years ago. The first one was Matt Wallace, the second one was Stan Robertson and now Lavester Talley. Thanks VetFriends.
W.A. Joseph
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I have been logging on to VetFriends for a short time and already have found some old friends, and am looking for more guys that I served with. Thanks VetFriends. - Jim
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I lost my high school sweetheart in Vietnam in 1966. He was a Marine sergeant. Since I wasn't a family member and he was an orphan, I was unable to find out what happened to him in any detail.
Through VetFriends I was able to find out where he died and how. I feel much more peaceful now just knowing. Thank you. And thanks to all of you most sincerely for your service and for the sacrifices you have made for me and those who were left behind when you went to war.
THE SEARCH FOR 3807 RESUMES
In August, 2004, Lieutenant Dougherty started to research the internet to see if he could locate any members of 3807.
Thanks to VetFriends.com, the first man located was T5 Dominick Santoro from East Meadow, NY on Long Island. The telephone call to him was placed on a Friday evening, completely out of the blue and the scenario went something like this:
Lieutenant Dougherty dialed the telephone anxiously and when the gentleman answered, Lieutenant Dougherty asked him if 3807 meant anything to him. The reply was an immediate, Hell yes! and they were off and running. A meeting was arranged for the following day and that has prompted a series of visits and telephone calls since.
Dominick had kept in touch with Sergeant Robert Hawk in Halifax, PA and so the three gentlemen spoke to one another from Dominick's home. The idea of a future reunion was discussed and a mailing was sent out to over 175 names.
To date, 3807 has been able to reconnect 10 of the members alive and well and they are all now communicating.
Without the help of VetFriends.com, this would not have been possible.
I retired from the Air Force in May, 1986, at Offutt AFB, Nebraska. I had been assigned there from Howard AFB, Panama, in November, 1982. When I left Howard, I left behind many good friends. But one particularly good buddy was my Assistant NCOIC, SSgt Warren N. (Neal) McCoy. Like me, he is (as I remember) from the great State of Alabama.
Last year (2004), I purchased my first computer. After I had become accustomed to doing web searches and finding a site like this one, I decided to see if I could locate any of my old comrades from my Blue Suiter days. Neal was one man I never expected to reunite with, but I looked him up, anyway. I found several Warren N. McCoys but only one who had been an NCO. His last address was in Colorado Springs, Colorado. I found a telephone number through this reunion website and called it without any real hope that the man at the other end of the line would be my friend, Neal. I got an answering machine and left my name and telephone number. He called me back the next day and, lo and behold, it was Neal.
We spent about 45 minutes on the phone that night talking over old times and about old companions who had gone separate ways. I now have his e-mail address and telephone number and he has mine. We can now talk to each other anytime we wish via e-mail and I have invited him and his lovely wife (whom I have never met) to stop over in Tuscaloosa so I can see him again when he and his wife travel to their Christmas destination. It was great to know that he and I were as good friends as when we served together in Panama. One story we both chuckled about was the time we both tried to learn Spanish in Panama. A simple enough language to learn, but oh, how we could butcher word pronunciations for even the simplest sentence.
I miss him, but now we have a means to keep in touch, thanks to VetFriends.com. Thank you for being there and enabling old friends to connect again over time and distance.
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The first reunion in 40 years for the crew of the U.S.S.Parle DE-708 was quite an experience. We all met in Jacksonville Florida in March 2005. It took awhile for us to recognize each other after all these years, but it only took a day once we got used to how we all changed and it seemed only a day had passed since we last saw each other.
We all found out that we can no longer take the long nights out anymore and we were all in bed by 9 PM! We plan on staying in touch from now on and will be holding another reunion in a few years.
I had this real good friend in viet nam , it made being far away from home a little easier.
We did everything together and when our time was up I flew back to Philly with him for a few days. I left and lost contact with him, from time to time I would try to find him but had no luck.
Well last year after 34 years I found him on a veterans web site. We plan on meeting soon and I can`t wait. So keep looking and don`t give up God bless all, brothers forever.
Recently attended a Dustoff reunion in San Antonio,Texas. Wow! Hooked up with Sgt Bill Fox. On March 19, 1968, he volunteered to replace my crew chief to allow a well earned R&R.
My crew and I had successfully completed 18 sorties, extracting 87 seriously wounded casualties of C Co,3d Bn,187th Reg't of the 101st Airborne Div at Phuoc Vinh in Vietnam. On our 19th sorty out of a hot LZ my tail rotor was shot off, a stabilizer bar in the main rotor was shot off, and a bullet severed the hydraulic line to the flight controls.
I became very busy trying to control the helicopter. Glanced in the back to see Sgt Fox falling to the deck with a bullet slicing through his kevlar helmet. He wasn't moving and I reported him KIA as part of my Mayday. We hit the rice paddy, bounced 12 feet in the air and over the second rice paddy, finally came to a dusty stop in a third rice paddy. Sgt. Fox sat up and, happily, made me a liar.
We were rescued within five minutes by another Dustoff crew with, of all people, Richard Cunnare, all dressed up in his R&R Uniform. "Major Luce, What kind of trouble have you got into, now?"
Sgt. Fox proudly pointed out his helmet, prominently displayed in the AMEDS Museum at Ft. Sam Houston.
This was the first time we had seen each other in more than 36 years. He invited my wife, Vivian, and I to attend Church on Sunday. The minister, a retired Airborne Chaplain allowed for me to tell this story to the congregation. Sgt Fox had never shared his experience in 30 years of going to the same church. Instant celebrity. Of course, I cried publicly and unashamedly. A really heart warming experience.
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The 8th annual reunion for the USS William M. Wood DD/DDR-715 was to be held in Jacksonville, FL. We got our committee together and started the process. We contracted with the hotel, got tours lined up, got the banquet set up and turned out to be the best one yet, thanks to our diligent crew of shipmates in FL.
This was my first reunion since leaving the Wood in 1974. I had hoped to see several of my fellow supply dept. buddies, especially our supply officer, LT. John T Michel. I had not seen him since January of 1974 when I left the Wood. Well, as it would happen, I was in the hospitality room at the hotel, and was reminiscing with a few of the supply dept. when who comes in but the LT., he came toward me across the room, I was wondering who this is coming toward me with this big grin on his face? When he put his arm around me and said hi Dennis, I knew immediately who it was. We talked back and forth the whole weekend talking about different people that were in the department. I felt I had been reunited with a long lost brother.
This man meant a lot to me while on the Wood. I made SK3 while in his division. When I left the Wood in January of 1974, I went to Charleston,S.C. and went aboard the USS Yellowstone AD-27. She was being readied for decommissioning. But I always remembered him no matter where I was.
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The last thing I remember saying to him was "switches off, and gas off" as we crash-landed in France on August 26, 1944. We were part of a Troop Carrier crew which consisted of Lts. Ralph Curtis, pilot, Leonard Greiner, co-pilot, Sgt. Adolf
Fronczak, engineer, and Sgt. John Penning, Radio Operator. We were on a re-supply mission, providing General Patton and his armored columns with much needed gasoline. We had unloaded the gas at a forward location near Paris, and were returning to home base at Ramsbury, England, when suddenly both engines quit. We frantically hit the wobble pump and auxiliary gas supply. We got a slight sputter, but at 3000 feet there is not much time for recovery, so we prepared for the crash that was to follow.
The crash report absolved the crew of any blame, and the C-47 transport was 85% destroyed. I, the pilot, and the two enlisted crew members incurred no injuries, and in a couple of days following the crash were returned to the 437th Troop Carrier Group, our parent organization. I was never told anything about the condition of my crewmember, but I did learn from the two enlisted men that Greiner had suffered severe injuries in the upper portion of his body, and probably would be unable to return to England and rejoin our Group and our crew.
Leonard and I had become close friends since we had endured a lot of challenges together. On D-Day, we participated in the invasion of France, and as all other troop carrier pilots will attest to, it is not a pleasant experience to fly low and slow, towing gliders, or dropping paratroopers. The eeriness of this is compounded on nighttime missions when it seems that every bullet in the sky is aimed right at you, and the tracer fire dances up and down the glider tow lines. Our second D-Day mission was equally exciting. Again, we dropped gliders in the St. Mere Egliese area of France. Right after dropping the glider I descended rapidly in an arc in order to pick up speed and to clear the area. As I remembered it, we dove towards a Church steeple in the town from where we took heavy fire, but Leonard seems to remember it a little different. He is of the opinion that we were under fire by a gatling gun. In any event whatever hit us meant business. Leonard's right rudder pedal was shot completely off, with the shot then ricocheting up through the throttle quadrant, and then slammed into the Command radio set right above my head, dropping the radio into my lap. That truly caused some excitement, but no one sustained a scratch.
You must know that our Lord was looking out after us. We also participated in other missions, including the Southern invasion of France, which was launched from Italy, but that was a milk run, compared to the Normandy missions.
Combat missions bond crewmembers together, and I certainly felt lost without Leonard. I had heard that he was very seriously injured and it disturbed me, but the subsequent missions that followed temporarily removed those memories from my mind.
After the war I started to try and locate him, and to determine if he was still alive. I knew he was from Iowa, but I had forgotten his middle initial. I made it a practice almost to call the Leonard Greiners in Iowa every time I got in the vicinity of the State. It is amazing how many Leonard Greiners there are in Iowa. One old codger once told me, "Hell Man! you have called me three times".
While on leave in 1942 and while awaiting an opening for flight training I returned to Cheyenne, Wyoming and married Frieda Magill. Together we made the Air Force a career and engaged in many interesting assignments overseas.
Our family consisted of two sons and a daughter. In 1945, and following his recovery, Leonard returned to civilian life in Hudson, Iowa, where he resumed a farming career. He married Mary Hermann in 1946, and they had three children, two boys and a girl. We still had not made contact with one another, and in fact, neither one of us knew if the other was alive.
One day in April 2003, while sitting at the computer, and having no thoughts about Leonard, I said to myself "What would happen if I put my name, Ralph R. Curtis, in the search engine". I did and the first thing I noticed was "Accident report of Aircraft crash August 26, 1944". It seems that someone had the bright idea to collect all the data on crash reports and sell it for a reasonable fee. I got the data and soon learned that Greiner's middle initial was A. Through the miracle of the Internet and VetFriends, we found each other. The rest is history, we were reunited in Iowa about 59 years later, and met again in Washington D.C. in time for the dedication of the World War II memorial.
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