{"id":10787,"date":"2014-11-11T09:03:40","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T17:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?p=10787"},"modified":"2022-09-09T09:31:44","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T17:31:44","slug":"3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Veteran\u2019s Day is a time of reflection and thankfulness. There are currently more than 20,000,000 veterans alive and well in the United States, from WWII all the way through the Iraq War. It\u2019s important to remember to thank the veterans in your life on Veteran\u2019s Day and also to be grateful for their service!<\/p>\n

In honor of these heroes, and because we love reunions, we\u2019ve sourced three incredibly heartwarming stories of deserving veterans reconnecting, thanks to technology and destiny, after decades apart. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

\"MandM\"<\/a>

Joe Martinez and Rick Mueller in the cubicle on the U.S.S White Plains (Photo via SouthernMinn.com, courtesy of Rick Mueller)<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Navy Buddies Find Each Other After 40 Years of Searching<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Martinez and Rick Mueller served as Navy Shipmates together during the Vietnam War they were so inseparable their friends called them \u201cM and M.\u201d At the time they were only 17 and 18 years old, respectively, but they formed a tight bond that neither forgot in the some 40+ years since. At several points since the early 1970s they tried to find each other, Rick spending $5 in change in 1976 calling all the \u201cJoe Martinez\u201d listings in a Denver area phone book. <\/b>But no luck. They talked about each other frequently to their families and remembered stories of their service together fondly.<\/p>\n

But just a couple of years ago, Joe\u2019s sister-in-law searched online for information about Rick Mueller and struck gold. She found an address, Joe wrote a letter and low and behold, a few weeks later it made its way to Rick in Minnesota. Their first phone call lasted two hours and then came a visit\u2026a highly emotional one. In a cell phone video by their families you can clearly hear Joe, \u201cMy God buddy. I love you. I love you.\u201d The two are planning another visit next year.<\/p>\n

Watch the video on KDVR.com<\/a>!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vietnam Pilot Finally Gets to Thank the Soldier Who Saved His Life<\/b><\/p>\n

March 18, 1970 was a fateful day for George Scott and Mark Abel. George was piloting a COBRA helicopter with John on board when enemy fire rained down hard, shooting several crew members including George. With a gaping chest wound and a downed chopper it was up to John to keep the enemy at bay until help arrived\u2026and to keep his pilot alive. \u201cHe was fighting against a very superior force,\u201d said George. But fight he did. The crew was evacuated \u2013 George with a collapsed lung \u2013 and the two last saw each other in a hospital in Saigon as they recovered.<\/p>\n

Thirty-eight years later after hearing dozens of recountings of the story, Mark\u2019s fianc\u00e9 Kathy used Facebook to finally track George down. The two friended each other and enjoyed catching up on each other\u2019s lives through photos, children and grandchildren included. Earlier this year the American Legion in Newport, CT the two finally came face to face after 44 years apart. George says he was simply grateful for the opportunity to thank Mark for his courage. \u201cMark saved my life. No one of us would be here today, my wife, my daughter, my grandson, without him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story on Valley News! <\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Childhood Friends Reconnect in a Nursing Home Decades After D-Day<\/b><\/p>\n

Michael James Conley (a.k.a. Jimmy) and Betty Cushman Jones Esch grew up together in Forestport, NY. Though they never dated they were inseparable as teens, going dancing often. When WWII began, Jimmy joined the army and Betty joined the Navy, thrusting the two thousands of miles apart. They both experienced the war from different countries and when it ended, neither immediately returned to Forestport. Both married soon after D-Day and the two assumed they\u2019d never see each other again.<\/p>\n

When Jimmy\u2019s wife died while they were both at the Sunset Nursing Home and Extended Care Facility in Boonville, NY, he was distraught. Not long after, one Betty Cushman coincidentally arrived at the facility in the wake of a fall and the two reconnected after nearly 70 years apart. With rooms directly across the hall from each other the two rekindled a friendship, sitting together in their wheelchairs and watching TV from one another\u2019s rooms. According to Betty\u2019s daughter Rhonda, \u201cWhen Jimmy heard his dear old friend Betty was now across the hall from him he perked up and began to smile again.\u201d Jimmy died in June of this year and was buried on D-Day, but Betty still hangs an American flag over her couch in his honor.<\/p>\n

Read the full story and watch the video from WKTV.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don’t forget to try Spokeo<\/a> for all of your people search and reunion needs! <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran\u2019s Day is a time of reflection and thankfulness. There are currently more than 20,000,000 veterans alive and well in the United States, from WWII all the way through the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[648,624],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-connectors","category-consumers"],"yoast_head":"\n3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Veteran\u2019s Day is a time of reflection and thankfulness. There are currently more than 20,000,000 veterans alive and well in the United States, from WWII all the way through the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Spokeo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-11T17:03:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-09T17:31:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Spokeo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Spokeo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Spokeo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Spokeo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/\",\"name\":\"3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-11T17:03:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-09T17:31:44+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#\/schema\/person\/d064cf67e95f6058dbec1c4eebc53c44\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/\",\"name\":\"The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo\",\"description\":\"The official Spokeo blog covers topics such as digital identity, consumer protection and privacy, how to avoid scams and catfishing, and more.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#\/schema\/person\/d064cf67e95f6058dbec1c4eebc53c44\",\"name\":\"Spokeo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e492b2d60c7cf3c148525c45191c0bb108881d6c2d3a2413959adb9829b993f?s=96&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e492b2d60c7cf3c148525c45191c0bb108881d6c2d3a2413959adb9829b993f?s=96&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Spokeo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/author\/spokeo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo","og_description":"Veteran\u2019s Day is a time of reflection and thankfulness. There are currently more than 20,000,000 veterans alive and well in the United States, from WWII all the way through the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/","og_site_name":"The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Spokeo\/","article_published_time":"2014-11-11T17:03:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-09T17:31:44+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Spokeo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Spokeo","twitter_site":"@Spokeo","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Spokeo","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/","url":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/","name":"3 Heartwarming Stories of Veterans Reuniting - The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg","datePublished":"2014-11-11T17:03:40+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-09T17:31:44+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#\/schema\/person\/d064cf67e95f6058dbec1c4eebc53c44"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/3-heartwarming-stories-of-veterans-reuniting\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/MandM-300x296.jpg"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/","name":"The Compass Blog | Digital Identity and People Search | Spokeo","description":"The official Spokeo blog covers topics such as digital identity, consumer protection and privacy, how to avoid scams and catfishing, and more.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#\/schema\/person\/d064cf67e95f6058dbec1c4eebc53c44","name":"Spokeo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e492b2d60c7cf3c148525c45191c0bb108881d6c2d3a2413959adb9829b993f?s=96&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7e492b2d60c7cf3c148525c45191c0bb108881d6c2d3a2413959adb9829b993f?s=96&r=g","caption":"Spokeo"},"url":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/author\/spokeo\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8V62u-2NZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10787"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25826,"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10787\/revisions\/25826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}