Posted on 06/04/2018 12:50:24 PM PDT by BBell
Maybe 6 years later I received an email from a guy identifying the motorcycle I had while I was there and it turned he was a friend who I shared an apartment with along with two other guys and their motorcycles until I was transferred to Ft. Clayton.........
We corresponded on and off for many years, the more we talked, the more memories surfaced.
My last email to him was maybe 4 years ago and he never responded, but that was expected. A year later I sent another email which he never responded to so I used the internet to look him up.
As it turns out, all I found was his obituary and that he had died from cancer about 5 months after the first non answered email.............
All those years I had hopes of visiting him in NJ, where he lived, but never did.............
As for the other pal we roomed with, Bill said he had died around 2000 and all attempts to contact his ex-wife were completely ignored............
Another close friend I served with who was from Wisconsin, I found he had died in 2010..........
The internet is good, if you have past military friends that you never saw again after leaving the service, try to look them up. It will do your heart good........but it may break too.
When I was in the DaNang hospital (105.5 fever, not wounded) after a tough month in the bush, I wrote my Mom telling her that the last operation "was a little rough", but no details. Her return letter contained a newspaper clipping of an article telling that my specific USMC company had started that operation with 243 men and returned with 113.
She had underlined those figures and written above them "a little rough, huh?" Mom's have a way of finding out!
Where is 'Louisiana'? Vietnam war buddies launch appeal to help them reunite with their comrade
I pinged a lot of people who responded to that article.
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