It's amazing at times the individuals you happen to meet. Shortly after a soldier I went to high school was killed in Iraq, I was online one day when an IM popped up and the individual asked if I had known Joe? I told him that I did and he explained that he had been stationed with him in Hawaii, had deployed with him and had escorted him for his final trip home.
Shortly after that was when I began talking to a recruiter about joining the military. This soldier and I kept in touch and he checked in from time to time, just to see how I was doing and letting me know what was going on with him. Over time, he shared stories of the Joe he had known during their service together.
As time went on, deployments for both us came and passed, we maintained contact. Although we had never met each other, we had gotten to know each other through a hit and miss communications. We talked about our families, whether we were able to be with them or were half a world away.
One night, while weathered in on a FOB in south Iraq, I signed online. A email popped up and the timing couldn't have been more spot on. We had our typical small talk, 'how are you?', 'what's been going on?' and through that we figured out that we had both found ourselves deployed again. I explained that we weathered in at a fuel stop and within a few minutes we figured out we were on the same FOB. In fact, he was in the next set of tents over from where we were staying.
That evening, I finally met this friend of a friend who I had talked to for the previous almost five years. It was weird being able to talk back and forth face-to-face. We found our conversation was short lived, as most of what we had in common was knowing Joe and being in the Army. We still catch up from time to time, but I think for both of us it helps to hold on to someone who knew someone we both once knew.
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