PRESERVING A MILITARY LEGACY FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
The following Reflection represents ET2 Alvaro Urioste’s legacy of their military service from 1996 to 2004. If you are a Veteran, consider preserving a record of your own military service, including your memories and photographs, on Togetherweserved.com (TWS), the leading archive of living military history. The Service Reflections is an easy-to-complete self-interview, located on your TWS Military Service Page, which enables you to remember key people and events from your military service and the impact they made on your life.
Has Together We Served helped you find and reconnect with someone you served with? If so, please describe how this happened and what this meant to you. Please add any specific memories of this person and a photo if available.:
My buddy Louie and I served together from 2000-2002 aboard the USS Supply (AOE 6). After I got out in 2004, he lost my number, and we didn’t speak for a couple of years. In 2006, I created my profile on TogetherWeServed.com, hoping to reconnect with some old friends, but I didn’t find anyone I knew. One day, Louie found my profile and, through my bio, discovered that I had moved back home to New Jersey. He couldn’t find my number, so he started looking for people in New Jersey with the same last name as me. After some online searching, he came across the contact number for someone named Claudia. He cold-called this person and asked for me. “Al who?” the woman answered.
“Al Urioste, we served together in the Navy,” Louie replied.
The woman explained she thought she had a cousin in the Navy but wasn’t sure because they hadn’t spoken since they were children. She had no idea where in the world he was or how to reach him or find him. “Do you think it’s the same person?” Louie asked. After further back-and-forth and comparing notes, they realized it really was the same person—me! Claudia told Louie to hold on to her number and to let her know if he ever found me.
Louie eventually found my number (he had it all along), and a few weeks later, I got a call. “Hey,” he said. “I found your long-lost cousins.”
“What?” I had no idea what he was talking about.
Louie explained everything, seeing my profile, searching for my name, and the conversation with Claudia (“I can’t believe you randomly called a stranger!” I said), and she gave me her phone number. But what he was saying made no sense. I hadn’t spoken to my cousins since we were children in 1989. We moved around a lot growing up and lost all contact with that side of the family. There was no way they were the same people. But I called the number anyway, and the woman answered. And I could immediately tell that it was my dear cousin. Her sisters were in the background, screaming and cheering and taking turns on the phone. It was so wonderful to hear their voices again! And it turned out they only lived one town away. We agreed to meet that weekend, and I brought my mother and sister along. That day, we had a wonderful family reunion 15 years in the making with all three of my cousins and my aunt, and we’ve all been in touch ever since.
Not only did TogetherWeServed.com help me reconnect with my buddy Louie, but it also reconnected me with my lost family, for which I am eternally grateful.
Read the Military Memories of our Runner-Ups.
PRESERVE YOUR OWN SERVICE MEMORIES!
Boot Camp, Units, Combat Operations
Join Togetherweserved.com to Create a Legacy of Your Service
U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard
SHARE:
0 Comments