Two Army vets reclaim friendship after discovering they were neighbors October 6, 1966. It was the day Roger Watson was drafted, and the day he met a friend who never quite left his memory - Dave Brown. Dave remembers Roger too. Both men were from northwest Detroit and went through basic Army training together in Fort Hood, Texas. They became fast friends. Then they went home for a month before serving in Vietnam. “After that, we never did see one another,” Dave recalls. Dave had heard that Roger was wounded early in his tour, but never learned if he had survived. After returning home, Roger got married, had kids and settled down on Franklin Road in Berkley. He would wonder, from time to time, whatever happened to his Army friend, Dave. About five years ago, Roger befriended a neighbor whose backyard lied kitty-corner to his. Her name was Peggy Brown. “We’d sort of wave and it went from a wave to coming up the fence to chatting a little bit,” Roger described. The two bird watched together and later exchanged emails to share pictures of birds. Little did Roger know, Peggy was married to Dave Brown. The pieces began falling together late October when Peggy noticed Roger was a wounded vet. She saw the Purple Heart logo on his license plate. Then she noticed the baseball cap visible from the back window of Roger’s car that read, “9th Infantry.” It was the same infantry Dave had served in. The rest unraveled quickly through a rapid series of emails between Peggy and Roger. “To tell you the truth, I was flabbergasted,” Dave said. “We’ve been neighbors for 18 years and didn’t realize, here we were,” Roger said. The odds are probably slimmer than the fence that separates their yards. A meeting - in the yard - was quickly arranged. “He came running out of the house, over to the corner, had to beat back the brush, we just shook hands and couldn’t believe it,” Roger said. “It was just an incredible feeling, just amazing,” he added. A long-lost friendship, reclaimed after almost half a century. “We’re going to share a beer every now and then, and we’re going to be seeing a lot more of each other,” Roger smiled. “Grow very old and watch our grandchildren grow up,” Dave said. When you have decades of catching up to do, it helps to live just 150 feet apart. wxyz/news/region/oakland-county/two-army-vets-reclaim-friendship-after-discovering-they-were-neighbors
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:00:01 +0000
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