What are some unusual coincidences you've experienced??

2016-08-11T17:12:14-04:00

I knew a kid in high school in Oregon, whom I later saw in Japan after I got stationed there (he wasn't in the military, or a dependent), and then, a few years later, saw him again in San Francisco. How about you, RP members, what are some of your unusual coincidences?

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 5:15 PM

2016-08-11T17:15:17-04:00

Great story, it is a small world as they say.

Response by SSG Stephan Pendarvis made Aug 11 at 2016 5:20 PM

2016-08-11T17:20:59-04:00

wow....girl I used to swoon over in High School ....now lives in my current city.....crazy

Response by PO3 Steven Sherrill made Aug 11 at 2016 5:21 PM

2016-08-11T17:21:01-04:00

Graduated with 22 other students. One of the guys I graduated with was on a ship home ported out of Norfolk at the same time I was. He joined the Navy in 93 when we graduated. I joined in December 97 and yet there we were. We were not on the same ship, but we did get together a few times.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Aug 11 at 2016 5:22 PM

2016-08-11T17:22:33-04:00

In many ways, America looked the same during the Vietnam War as it did during WWII. There were men in uniform everywhere you looked. We were drafted or enlisted into any one of the branches, shuffled into various units and then flung around the world. Imagine my surprise when I ran into Bob at Ton Son Nuht Airport. Bob and I had attended high school and prelaw together, but he dropped out and moved away, and we lost touch. But there he was, standing on the other side of the counter filling out the same forms I was working on, both bound for Hawaii on the same plane for R&R. What are the odds? Then there was Dan. He was my debate partner in college. I had stopped at the bar at the officer's club at Fort Derussy on Waikiki Beach while stationed in Hawaii. Sitting on the stool next to me as a naval aviator. It was Dan. Then there was George. He showed up as an intern at Tripler Army Medical Center on Oahu when I was stationed there as Special Services Officer. You want unusual coincidences? I'm not sure that they're unusual, but they sure as hell are coincidences aplenty.

Response by Maj Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 5:25 PM

2016-08-11T17:25:18-04:00

My parents' second duty station (the first that I remember, as I was 3 years old at the time of PCS) was my first duty station upon entering active duty, for myself 22 years later; and a good number of the people I remember in the church and community were still there when I returned. It was like a great, big family reunion.

Response by Capt Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 5:33 PM

2016-08-11T17:33:00-04:00

1. Was on a train (The southwest chief route) and was in the dinning car seated with a lady who was taking her granddaughter on the train for the experience. Asked where she was from. She named a town where my aunt live. I had not seen my aunt in about 40 years. She asked my aunt's name. When I told her she said Oh my, I have been here hairdresser for 40 years.

2. Got reassigned to my home town. We went to eat at a MacDonald's and the place was packed. There was no place to sit. One table had an opening for 2 and we asked if we could share the space. Turned out the couple was the son and daughter-in-law of my cousin. I had never met them before.

Response by SPC Michael Patrick made Aug 11 at 2016 5:33 PM

2016-08-11T17:33:52-04:00

Was helping a lady with computer help when I worked at Staples. Her accent was very familiar so I asked about it. She said she was from a little town in Germany that I probably never heard of. I asked anyway and she mentioned it was near Frankfurt. I mentioned I had been to a small town near there so she says Fulda. Me too I said. So she says her husband was in 1/11. Me too I said. Alpha Troop she said. I'm shaking my head yes, so she says 1st Platoon. Ha ha...Her (now ex)husband was the platoon sergeant that ETS'd just before I got there. She asked if I knew certain people and I knew them all. So Fulda, Germany to Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Small world coincidences.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 5:35 PM

2016-08-11T17:35:23-04:00

I met a cousin that I didn't know I had, who was serving in the Navy while we were both deployed in AFG. small world sometimes.

Response by SFC Everett Oliver made Aug 11 at 2016 5:42 PM

2016-08-11T17:42:42-04:00

Up until I was a SGT I had not ran into another person in the military with my last name. While sitting in a Vehicle registration Office in Heidelberg Germany, waiting for my name to be called the young lady calls out Sergeant Oliver, and 3 of us stood up....

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Aug 11 at 2016 5:57 PM

2016-08-11T17:57:42-04:00

A couple. A guy I ran track with in high school that I only ran into once afterwards.... at the South Pole. I had an EA-3 up on Adak and didn't see her again until I saw a Hummer in the ditch at Yakima and picked her up out of it. Didn't see her again either. Funny how people drift in and out of our lives.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 6:09 PM

2016-08-11T18:09:09-04:00

My wife (at the time girlfriend) and I met a young couple and hit it off quite well with them. After visiting with them once, I told Jen, that I had a feeling I recognized the wife but I had no idea why. I finally had to ask her, and realized that we had know each other when I was 6 or 7 years old. Used to play cowboys and Indians and such together. A couple years after that my sister met a guy and began dating (they are now married) He was brother to the husband of the couple that Jen and I had met.

I went to Ft. Leonardwood, MO for OSUT. When I got back my dad asked where I had stayed, and described the layout of the barracks, I stayed in. He described the layout of the block and chowhall, and chapel. Then described that his room was the "second room on the right past the office when entering from the right hand entrance on the first floor." He's sure (And I think he's probably right) we stayed in the same barracks, but whether or not that's true we stayed in the same bay in the same style of barracks for certain.

Response by SSG Stephan Pendarvis made Aug 11 at 2016 6:17 PM

2016-08-11T18:17:31-04:00

Ran into my first roommate ever (Korea 1992) in Iraq (2005)...could not believe it!

Response by SSG Carlos Madden made Aug 11 at 2016 6:18 PM

2016-08-11T18:18:59-04:00

I was in the back of a humvee driving down Tampa with an FA Bn from 1st CD to a meeting the next village south of Taji. There was traffic so we skipped over the median and drove down the other direction. I heard the driver say something like "I wish I could do that on the Mass Pike." So I asked him where he was from and he said..
"Boston"
"Ok, like Boston or around Boston?" I needed specifics.
"Outside of Boston." Not that helpful.
"Like Worcester?"
"No a town kind of between there and Boston."
"So like the Framingham area?"
"Yea, thats where I'm from!"
"I went to school in Framingham."
"No way, my brother went to school there."
"When did your brother graduate?"
"2008." Which was when I was there as well.
"What was his major?" I asked
"History." The school is small and the history department was even smaller. Everyone in their last two years generally know each other since we all had classes together. So I asked the next obvious question.
"What is your brother's name?"
Turns out the brother of the kid I'd been in classes with for the last couple years, was driving me down route Tampa, Iraq in 2009. I then remembered his brother back in 2007 came into class one day and told our professor that he's had to go to Ft. Sill for a few days in the middle of the semester to go to his brother's BCT graduation. Now here I was in this guy's humvee...

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 6:28 PM

2016-08-11T18:28:22-04:00

I saw a guy in Mainz, Germany and I knew him from Northeast Ohio. He was in a McDonald's. He was backpacking Europe and I just happened to see him. Weird!

Response by ENS Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 6:31 PM

2016-08-11T18:31:05-04:00

SN Greg Wright this is a doozy. I grew up in a very poor, very small town, in the real Upstate (North Country) New York - Moira, look it up. Anyway, my class size was 42 and we were considered a BIG class. No on ever leaves Moira - however, I enlisted in the military and got as far away as I could.

Fast forward three years. I am stationed in Honolulu HI, and my buddy decides we all should go to a full nude strip club. So we go..

This stripped starts her whole deal with us, etc etc. putting her "girls" in our faces. And of course she gets to me and starts small talk. "Where are you from" - side note: I already feel like there is something weird with this girl..

So I say New York.
She says, "Oh me too, what part"
To which I respond, "Upstate".
She says "Really? How far upstate?"
I say, "All the way up"
So she asks, "what's the name of the town maybe I know it"
I say, "I doubt it, maybe you've heard of Potsdam or Malone.
At this point she stops, and asks, "What school did you go to.."
I say, "Brushton Moira"
She looked horrified and asked me, "Do you know my brother (name taken out)?"
I say, "Uh...yes. We were in the same class.."
Then it hits us - we knew eachother from school. She was a couple years ahead of me.

I shit you not, she begs me not to tell her parents and then runs to the back and doesn't come out for the rest of the night... To this day, I have never told her brother that she was a stripper or that she had her "girls" all up in my face or that I saw her naked. :P

Response by PO1 William "Chip" Nagel made Aug 11 at 2016 6:37 PM

2016-08-11T18:37:56-04:00

3 Individuals come to mind. Arthur French who I went thru Boot Camp with. both went our separate ways to A-School, Me CTO and he as a Seabee, Saw him next at my 2nd duty station Adak, AK and once again in Diego Garcia my 2nd to Last Posting before I retired, He was a Civilian working at GEODDS. Daniel T "Squidly" McCabe, My Best Running Mate at Adak, AK. Ran into him again in Diego Garcia, He was RM1 and CWC Communications Watch Chief while I was CTO1 Operations Watch Chief for Intel. Last but not least would have been CTO1 Brian Sudis our Tech Control Chief at Adak, AK. Ran into him again he was running IT for Lab One/Quest Diagnostics Olathe, KS and I was doing Security there.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 6:58 PM

2016-08-11T18:58:52-04:00

I was sitting at a chow table in the DFAC at Tallil (in 2010)when I looked up and I saw my old Drill Sergeant from C-5-10 at FLW, MO (1993).....SSG Terrance Murphy....well CSM Murphy when I saw him in the chow hall.

Response by SSgt Dan Montague made Aug 11 at 2016 6:59 PM

2016-08-11T18:59:00-04:00

while in Iraq, I was talking to one of the Marines in my unit. I found out he attended the same HS as I did. Just a decade and a half later. That isn't the big one. Later that week, a car came to our checkpoint. The family was from America. They fled Iraq during the first gulf war. Their daughter attended our HS as well and over lapped one year that my Marine attended there. On top of that, the driver recognized my Marine, because when he was little, that man worked with his dad in the same DR office. You can't make stuff up like this.

Response by PO1 John Miller made Aug 11 at 2016 7:14 PM

2016-08-11T19:14:17-04:00

I ran into the guy I shipped out from MEPS with on the USS Nimitz, about 14 years later.

On my first ship, USS Halsey, there was a guy in my division who was from the same town as me, though he was a year older than me and went to a different high school.

Response by MSG Pat Colby made Aug 11 at 2016 7:41 PM

2016-08-11T19:41:19-04:00

After my initial stint in the 82D, I spent a few years in the Reserves. I got picked up as an AGR Instructor and after working there a while, I was making some copies of stuff and overheard a guy that I had been working with side-by-side for pretty much FOUR years talk about my Mom's home town. Now I knew of this guy from my Reserve time as well but we never really talked about family. After we grilled each other for a bit by the copy machine, turns out we are COUSINS! His Dad and my Gramps are first Cousins. We BOTH spent our early childhood knowing (Crazy) Olga's Cafe in Granite Falls, MN and picking weeds in the summer at corn and bean fields of our relatives in the surrounding area. CrAzY times indeed.

Response by MSG Pat Colby made Aug 11 at 2016 7:58 PM

2016-08-11T19:58:18-04:00

Here's another TrIpPy thing...

Shortly after I got married, my wife and I went to one of her cousins wedding in Northern MN. I was wearing my Class A's. Bloused Jump Boots, French fourragère, Maroon Beret, All that 82D stuff. We sat at a table set for 8 and I sat next to some nice old lady. Before too long, her husband showed up and FORCED his wife to move so he could sit next to me. Turns out this elderly STUD was in the original Airborne Test Platoon. He raised his hand and volunteered to help figure out how Soldiers could jump out of airplanes with equipment! Before long, we were at the bar doing shots and talking Airborne stuff. My GOD it was an incredible evening being with him. Hours later, the Father of the Bride came up to me and jokingly called me an asshole. I was shocked! He then explained that he worked with that guy for 20+ years and never even knew that he had served. In less than 3 hours I had more in common with him than he could ever hope for. To this day I am still humbled to have met that guy and got the chance to listen first hand to the stories he had about the BIRTH of the Airborne.

Response by SSG Jeremy Sharp made Aug 11 at 2016 8:08 PM

2016-08-11T20:08:57-04:00

I was assigned to an undercover narcotics team at a southern Army base and we made a case against a SSG assigned to the TMP on post for trafficking in sizable amounts of marijuana. He is arrested and convicted at Courts Martial and given what I assumed was a confinement sentence. Fast forward three years. I had a break in service for education and I am still the same rank that I was during the investigation. I go to German and I and my wife are walking through the PX at a small kaserne when this guy stops me and asks my name. He reads it off my uniform and continues to eyeball me. (I used an assumed name while working narcotics.) He asks where I work and I advise him that I am on a hawk missile site (true). I read his name off his uniform and realize that he was the target of the drug investigation only he is now only a PFC. I tell him it must be a mistaken identity and walk on. Talk about a small world. I have no clue how he managed to stay in the military. Usually drug convictions were a kiss of death to an NCO and eventually became an automatic key for separation in all MOS.

Response by Cpl John Mathews made Aug 11 at 2016 9:24 PM

2016-08-11T21:24:45-04:00

That's funny because I had a similar experience. I went to hgh school on aif force base in Germany, graduated in 1978, class was 127 people. Two years later I joined the Marines. After A school I was stationed at MCAS Iwakuni and was there for just short of three years. I was rotated back early, November 1984, because of some injuries, so I wasn't on the flight that I should have been on. As I boarded the C-141, the crew chief yelled at me by name. He was in my graduating class in Germany six yeas earlier and was an Air Force reservist on annual training/duty. Amazing coincidence to run into him half ay around the world.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 9:45 PM

2016-08-11T21:45:16-04:00

I was in an Army Reserve unit at Fort Snelling MN (5510 USAH) in the mid 70s. Later in the 80s I was in a reserve unit at Camp Parks, CA (91st Maneuver Training Command); TWO soldiers from my former Minnesota unit were in the latter unit both at the some time I was in those units. Both were NCOs E7 and E5 in the first unit. The E5 was a commissioned officer when he was in the second unit.

Response by ENS Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 10:10 PM

2016-08-11T22:10:07-04:00

I just remembered another coincidence. Ran into a buddy of mine from Bootcamp and BUD/S at a skydiving center. We were getting ready to skydive and we look at one another and asks me if my name was Martin. I look at him and ask him if his name was Face (yes - weird name). Ends up we were on the same skydive. To make things even more unbelievable, as we were leaving another guy from our bootcamp and BUD/S class was walking in for his first skydive. I was stationed in HI, and each of them were on separate ships. Small world.

Response by ENS Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 11 at 2016 11:38 PM

2016-08-11T23:38:32-04:00

SN Greg Wright this is a great question. The responses I've read are incredible, almost unbelievable. What a small world we live in.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Aug 12 at 2016 8:27 AM

2016-08-12T08:27:30-04:00

Then, there was this guy, PFC Ott, that was in my basic training. He was 3rd plt while I was 2nd, but we knew each other. He and I were were both split option so i figured id never see him again as I was to be a medic and he was to be a tank mechanic or something. Come 1994 I am down at FT Sam Houston for medic training and we are getting marched to chow. I see someone standing off to the side in civvies. Turns out, it is PFC Ott from my basic training shifting MOS's and gets put into my platoon.

Response by COL Jean (John) F. B. made Aug 12 at 2016 11:02 AM

2016-08-12T11:02:36-04:00

SN Greg Wright I have several, but will only bore you with three…

While assigned to an Army ROTC assignment at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, one of our neighbor families at our previous assignment at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, was visiting us. We went out to dinner and were driving down Academy Blvd in Colorado Springs, headed to the restaurant, and were discussing another neighbor family, whom neither of us had seen for a couple of years. I stopped at a red light, looked in the rear-view mirror and saw someone leaning out the window of the car behind us, waving her arms. I looked closer and it was the family we were just talking about. They happened to be driving through Colorado Springs enroute to a new assignment and had just pulled off the interstate to find a hotel. They joined us for dinner and we had a great reunion.

I was prepping for shoulder surgery at the Air Force Academy Hospital and was filling out forms, getting blood drawn, etc. A hospital volunteer, a French lady in her late 70’s or so, was walking me through the process, providing the forms, etc. When I completed the first form and handed it to her, she reviewed it and started crying… I asked her what was wrong and she stated that she had been a good friend of my mother and that her husband was one of my father’s junior officers, when we had been stationed in Paris, and had baby-sat for me when I was a baby. She could not believe that, after all these years, she was actually seeing me as a grown man and a Major in the Army, the rank her husband was when he was killed on active duty in Viet Nam. Over the years, she had lost contact with most people and had settled in Colorado Springs, where her late husband’s family was from. I contacted my parents and they re-established the long-lost friendship with her.

When stationed in Italy, one of my wife’s favorite places to go was Nove, a little town between Vicenza and Venice, that is famous for making Italian pottery. We probably went there about five or more times while in Italy and a couple more when we were stationed in Germany a few years later. What is unusual about going to Nove is that in every one of our visits to that small little town, without exception, we have always run in to someone from our past that we have not seen for years. In fact, it was such an unusual occurrence that we used to joke about it, wondering, when we were enroute there, who we might see on that trip. We went there from Germany with some very good friends, and joked about it, only to run into some folks we both knew from a previous assignment at Ft. Bragg. The Allied Forces Southern Europe newspaper wrote an article about it and it was picked up by several Italian papers. Not sure how many others had the same experience, but it was pretty uncanny.

Response by COL David Turk made Aug 18 at 2016 12:59 PM

2016-08-18T12:59:29-04:00

Was a PL/XO in Germany in late 70's in an EN BN. Got out and joined reserves. Was working, as a civilian, for Pepsi Cola HQ in NY in mid-late 80's. There was a interdepartmental transfer and I ended up working for one of the former company commanders from our BN. He hadn't changed a bit.

Similar incident; was AD enlisted MP at Fort Dix, NJ in early 70's. Got early out, via the "try one" program (serve one year in reserves and/or NG). Went back to school in Atlanta and joined local MP NG unit. Midway through the year, one of the members from my AD unit joined our unit. He hadn't changed either.

Response by LTC Robert Eidsvoog made Aug 18 at 2016 1:07 PM

2016-08-18T13:07:02-04:00

I was a reservist and deployed to Afghanistan in June 2005. My first day on the ground I entered the mess hall on Bagram adjacent to the OGA compound and who do I see, but my Senior Instructor from MP school I attended in 1983, MSG Fredrickson. I was enlisted back then and was a Major when we met again. I also saw an officer colleague of mine from the National Guard that same day. It was old home week in Bagram.