1985 I was hitchhiking around Europe and when I was in Athens I bumped into guy I hadn't seen since grade school. Just passed him walking down the street and I did a double take and ran to back to see if was really him. Lo and behold it was.

did you see a sighting?

I was at that Dead show at Alpine Valley in '87 and then their last show there in '88

Go on a business trip to Hawaii with the Wife and kids. Check in at the front desk, and then get into a "boat" to take us to our tower. Sit down next to a young newlywed couple.
Turns out, the guy is my wife's step cousin from Florida. Hadn't seen him in decades.
What are the chances?

My freshman year in high school in Illinois, I was sitting in the hallway, reading, when a girl who'd been in my 3rd grade class in Montana walked by and recognized me. Our Dads were both in the Air Force and their careers had brought them to the same bases.

When I was a senior in high school, in Maine after my Dad retired, I worked at a Burger King. One of my coworkers (a REALLY, REALLY hot Asian chick) was dating a football player from our rival school. I met him just a few times when he'd come see her. I enlisted right after graduation and got stationed in Germany. One night, I was in a bar making out with this freaky chick I'd just met when this dude walked up to me and addressed me by my name, basically telling me to get a room. I looked up and realized it was the guy who'd dated my former coworker. A few weeks later, my company took an orientation flight on some UH-60's, during which one of my battle buddies puked all over himself, the rucksack he was holding in his lap, and the floor of the bird. When I told my former coworker's ex, who was a Blackhawk mechanic, he told me that it was his bird and he'd had to clean my buddy's vomit out of it.

About 8 years after I left Germany, after a 5 year break in service and a change in MOS's, I was in the map warehouse at Fort Campbell when this Specialist walked up and asked me how I'd been. It turned out, we had been in the same unit in Germany and he recognized me, though I couldn't recall him.

About a year after that, I was walking into the Ft. Campbell clothing sales store, and, as I walked past the shoe/boot sales area, recognized my former team leader / track commander from the second unit to which I'd been assigned in Germany.

A couple years ago, thanks to a post I'd made here about the unit I'd been assigned to in Germany, I got an IM from someone asking about when I was there. It turned out to be one of the M-60 gunners from another platoon, who I used to hang out with from time to time. When we got to catching up, we realized we now live about 30 miles apart.

I was in a local hardware/home improvement store, wearing a hat with my former unit's regimental crest on the front. A guy in line behind me asked me when I was with the unit. I told him and we got to talking. He'd been assigned to the same brigade years before me, but was later assigned to the company from another 101st ABN brigade which relieved the one I was in at the end of our Kosovo deployment. We had spent about a week on the same little firebase 14 years before as we turned over our Area of Operations to his unit. (When I say small firebase, I mean tiny. It barely held four GP medium and one GP small tents, along with a small area for us to park our Humvees. It had about enough room for 40-50 people to live, and that was about it.)

If there's one truth about the military, it is that it makes the world very small.

Wife and I were making small talk with a few Beemer guys from Fl at the overlook on the N end of the Dragon a few years back. One of the guy's a few years older than me grew up 3 blocks over from where I grew up. We were in the same boy scouts troop with Gallagher the comedian.

Small world

In Ramadi, 2006, literally bumped into the guy who had the top bunk above me at Parris Island twenty years earlier.

I think I saw a sitting!!!

With the amount of people in the world, time and distance, what are the real odds of this happening? I mean really! Some of these stories make me wonder what Gods plane is, why theses occurrences happen? Why God, why?

okay my turn again. My brother and I from Wi, took a trip to western edge of N. D. To rattle snake hunt. We were driving around the middle of nowhere in the national grass lands. We stopped at a ranch to ask if they knew where any snake dens were. Rancher helped us find one and asked where were from. I say tiny town in Wi he's likely never herd of. St.Croix Falls. He asked if I knew a Gayland Hansen? I said no, but I had a Gale Hanson in my class of around 55 students. He says a real rough girl? I said yes. He said oh, okay, there from right here. We're talking over 1k miles away middle of nowhere, and he knows the same person I went to high school with. Crazy stuff. This world,,,,, it's so small. 

My my mom uses these things to point out why you should always be with the person and places your supposed to be!

More than once and it's always weird.

First time was in bumfuck Germany, just wrapping up a REFORGER exercise and getting ready to put our tanks on the train to go back to our barracks. Everyone I know is on our tanks and this guy way off to one side starts yelling, "Hey grondike!". I'm ignoring him, thinking he was looking for some other grondike till he got to my tank. It was a guy that lived close enough to me growing up in upstate NY to hit our house with a rock (and he probably did), and though I knew him ever since I could remember, I hadn't seen him for like six years and didn't keep in touch. I left NY for FL in between sophomore and junior years, graduated in FL, went to Ft Knox to become a tanker and got stationed at Conn Barracks in Schweinfurt. He followed a similar path (though as a mechanic, not tanker) a year or so later and got stationed at Ledward Barracks in Schweinfurt.

Next was about six years after I got off active duty. I was working for a large aero space mfr in FL and got tagged to take some new piece of equipment to Huntsville. I stopped at this small town Alabama convenience store for a Coke and a pack of cigarettes, and the guy behind the counter was in my unit from Ft. Riley who I hadn't seen since I ETS'd. Smart guy who I figured would do a lot better, but I guess he just went home and settled in when he got out.

My Reserve unit (MI Det) got tasked to go to Panama for document cleanup right after Just Cause, and on our way out we're loading up at Howard AFB and another guy shouts out, "Hey grondike." Turned out he was one of the bunch of AF guys I went to language school with at DLI four years earlier and was loving life doing voice intercept work in Central America.

Final time (so far) was about 10 years ago in St. Pete. I was down there for family stuff and we decided to take in a Ray's game. A large group took over a couple of rows just in front, and this girl sat down right in front of me that I knew from my then current job. Her husband's company had flown their group (including spouses) to FL for a team event which included the ball game.

So on I'm the Kenia peninsula headed from Homer to a fishing trip on the Little Susitna river. I was with my step dad, and I was telling him some of the stories I had been told by one of my biological fathers friends while up there visiting when I was 17. Later that day we met our guide at the little Susitna and caught our 2 salmon and went exploring. We found a general store with a burger joint attached. My dad and I sat down and were having lunch when I heard a familiar voice. I was in my mid 40's so it had been well over 25 years, and I looked over to see the man I had been telling my dad stories about earlier that day. I walked over and asked him if he was married to a woman named Susie, and if his name was Jerry, he said yes, and I asked if he knew my bio dad and he did, and then he said he remembered me from when I was a kid. He gave me a business card but heck that was 12 or 13 years ago and I doubt I could find it.

Beautiful trip sir. Good looking young man you have there. I look forward to doing something cool like that with my son.

Almost every year I have taken a trip with him usually over summer vacation. I have found memories of the trips we took even before I had a digital camera. You'll never regret spending time with your son. I know I never have.

Two of us couples were going to S. Dakota one year. We got about 4 hours away and stopped at a roadside rest to take a leak. We ran into a couple that had a son in our sons class in school.

Battle Buddy/Pup Tent Mate, roster # right next to me in Infantry Basic, Summer of '86:  I was in Berlin, just got off the U-Bhf Oskar-Helene-Heim, got on the #10 Bus and instead of going up to the second level, I went to the back of the bottom and who do I hear call my name? Albrecht.   

What were the fuckin' odds of that?  If I was 5 min later or gone to the second level I may never had known he was in Berlin at the same time.

Senior year of high school in Alabama I started dating a girl that had just moved into town. Turns out we were in the same kindergarten class in Alaska 12 years earlier.

It was an old USMC friend that had moved to Tucson long ago.  I had just just moved to Tucson a few days before.  He was standing in line directly behind me in Lowes.  Even more strange, his best friend was my co-worker at the company I just got a job with.

Once i got pulled over by someone i went to school with.

He recognized me, i didnt recognize him.  Got a warning out of it as a result.

Cool pics.

Yeah, I ran into an old classmate on the streets of Paris.  We both still live in the same relatively small town and had not seen each other for years, but happened to bump into each other in a crowded place in a city of millions five thousand miles from home.  Pretty surreal, actually.

It's called Stadium Sauce.

Was in Pagosa Springs CO a few years ago for vacation. Me and the GF had just gotten off the river, as we had spent the day rafting, and just went to a local brewery that's a favorite of ours. I'm sitting at a table facing the door, and the GF had her back to the door. About the time my second beer comes out, I see a very familiar looking face, but nah it couldn't be. So I double check, and triple check. Sure enough one of my best friends from Salt Lake City UT had just walked in. I went up and surprised the hell out of him, then we all sat down and had dinner and a few beers together. He was passing through on his way home from a sales meeting in Denver.

We were in the backcountry in Yosemite. Only person we ran into for three days was someone my wife knew from Kentucky.

was walking down mcarther blvd in angles city phillipines. some dude yelled at me from behind, hey man im goning to kick your motherfucking american ass this time, it was some scrawy fuck i met while in argintina. appeared to be missing almost all his teeeth, think he enjoyed getting them knocked out, to bad i cant remember his name. last i heard he joined the FFL

I moved from Tennessee to central Florida late 60s. Went to an airshow at Kissimmee early 70s and the Navy Reserve flight demonstration team was there. I was looking the program over and reading about the Navy fliers and I recognized one of them from my high school. I couldn't believe it was the same guy but went over to where they were signing autographs and said hello to him. We were both shocked to see each other so many years later. I went in the Marines after high school and he had gone into the Navy and we hadn't seen each other since school 15 years earlier.! It is a small world!

Back in 2005, a lady friend of mine had married this guy who was in a travelling Acapella group from GB.

We didn't keep in touch for several years.  When I took a trip down to Miami in 2009, our connecting flight went through Chi-Ohare and as we were walking to our next flight, I ran into her husband (the singer).  We got to speak for a few minutes and that was about 8 years ago.  Haven't seen them since.

Several times... it's a small world getting smaller every day.

Ran into a classmate from about 100 kids in IA while waiting at DTW. He's an identical twin and I couldn't remember which one he was, just called him by his last name was cool to catch up.

I was at a car dealership back in the 80s and ran into a guy who was in my Company in the Army.
He was a care salesman.

Another time I'm with the wife and kids at a gas station feeling up the mini-van on a road trip.
I'm in line inside (pre-debit card days) when I hear "wassup Officer Yankee43"?
I turned around to see a human shitbag I'd arrested multiple times and even fought with from the City I worked at then.
I kept up the small talk until I paid for my gas, so as not to have my back to him, then hit the road.

Was sitting in a Brazilian restaurant a few years ago, heard a distinctive voice, and looked over and saw my dads friend bill.
Hadn't seen him in over 20 years, so he wouldn't of recognized me, plus he is kind of of a stuck up rich asshole, so I didn't engage him.
Went home and called dad telling him who I saw, and what he ate. So he called bill and said how was your quail dinner, bill was like WTH ?


I left my old job for a new one, left on good terms, and 6mos later ran into my old boss at a gun store.
He was looking at buying a cheapo gun safe, I would of avoided him if I could, he was a psychotic childish asshole.
I didn't know him to be into guns, so it was a weird place to see him.

Home on leave and partying at a friends house when a very nice looking 20 something woman came up to me and asked if I remembered her.  I didn't, but surely wish I had.  It turns out she was a good friend of my little sister who I hadn't seen since she was about twelve years old.