How have you tried to reconnect to your former shipmates and have you had success?

PO2 Todd Voge — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 15:55:02 -0500

I've been able to reconnect with some of my former shipmates, but would like to see about finding others and maybe getting a reunion together. What methods have you used to try to reconnect?

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Mar 1 at 2015 8:45 PM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 01 Mar 2015 20:45:50 -0500

They're not shipmates for me, PO2 Todd Voge, but I have re-connected with former colleagues from decades ago. I think you're on one of the best sites to do that. Have you searched for your unit or your ship in the search bar at the top of the RallyPoint window (on a PC)? I typed in USS, and there's a long list of ships. I have also found former friends and colleagues on Facebook.

The desire to re-connect with former friends and colleagues from the military is very strong. I'm sure that's part of the appeal of RallyPoint. I know the desire is strong because I visited Mannheim and wrote about it in a blog I was doing at that time. In that blog post I mentioned that Turley Barracks had been closed. Wow, I've had over 100 responses to that one post, and most of them are from people who used to be stationed at Turley Barracks. That's the power of the Internet. Here's the post, in case you're interested in seeing it:

http://anoldsoldiersview.blogspot.com/2009/05/mannheim.html

An Old Soldier's View: Mannheim

Val and I took a quick jaunt over to Mannheim on Saturday. Yowza! That was quite a drive! We left Garmisch-Partenkirchen at 0900 and arrived in Brühl at about 1400. Then we spent about eight hours with our friends, Ulrike and Christian, at their home and touring the city a bit. It was so great to see them again and to experience their kind and generous hospitality. And it was also very nice to be able to see my old German "home" in Mannheim....

Response by PO2 Todd Voge made Apr 29 at 2017 12:34 PM

PO2 Todd Voge — Sat, 29 Apr 2017 12:34:11 -0400

So since this post, I've been able to catch up with about 30 or so shipmates. We're planning a get-together (reunion sounds so funny when we've been chatting over Facebook and other media for a couple years now) in January in San Diego. Can't wait!