VA Military Memories Competition
ET2 Alvaro Urioste, U.S. Navy (1996-2004)
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.
Capt Richard Gerry, U.S. Air Force (1964-1970)
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.:
This is my response to my friend Robert Pryor’s post.
Friday, June 20th, 1969, is a day I’ll never forget! In two weeks, I would be on that Freedom Bird heading home.
I was Air Force Captain Dick Gerry, the Air Liaison Officer (ALO) and Forward Air Controller (FAC) at Song Be, Phuoc Long Province, assigned to MACV Advisory Team 67. I flew the O-1 Bird Dog, and my call sign was Rod 11. Approaching the end of my tour, I had more than five hundred combat missions under my belt.
PFC Jr. Eugene Broyls, U.S. Marine Corps (1988-1990)
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.:
Recently, I reconnected with Lance Corporal Darren Foster, with whom I served in the US Marine Corps in Kaneohe Bay, HI. While in the Marines, we were together every day like Frick and Frack. There were days we’d take the military excursion bus (provided by the base) to Waikiki every night after “work.” After partying in Waikiki every night, we’d get back on the base bus and barely make it to formation in time. And, we’d be in formation “leaning,” meaning we’d be so hungover we’d be unable to stand up straight correctly due to a headache, stomachs boiling in the hot Hawaii sun, and “reeking” of alcohol. Our Staff Sergeant would just laugh and say, “Broyls, Foster, you’ll ‘tied one on” again last night?” And we’d reply, “Yes, Staff Seargent.” And at times, he’d come over yelling in our ear, knowing we’d have a headache, and sometimes call for our daily PT right after formation, knowing we’d be struggling!
To reconnect with Darren means we’ve found a wonderful “best friend” with whom we can share photos of our wives, kids, and grandkids now and reminisce on our crazy Marine days. When we 1st reconnected, Darren asked, ” You finally found someone just as crazy as you to marry your crazy a**?”
LoL…Good times.
PFC Daniel Brookes, U.S. Army (1966-1969)
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.:
In 2010, because of TWS, I was able to locate one of my best friends from Vietnam, Bob Hillerby. We served together in the 69th Signal Battalion Combat Photography Unit. As a result of our reconnecting, I was able to write and publish two books on the role of military combat photographers in Vietnam.
Bob was my co-author of the first book, “Shooting Vietnam,” and between Bob and I, we were able to share hundreds of photos taken by us and a third writer, Tony Swindell, along with our first-person accounts of our experiences.
Cpl Edward Bonny, U.S. Marine Corps (1960-1964)
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.:
After I joined TWS, I was contacted by a Marine I went to MCES Electrician’s School with at Court House Bay, Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, NC. His name was Ronald Barnes, and he was from Louisville, KY.
Ronnie used to travel with me to NYC, my hometown, on weekends, and we shared a lot of memorable adventures. We went overseas together and wound up in different outfits. I left the Corps after 4 years. Ronnie stayed in over thirty years and retired as a Sergent Major. My wife and I went to visit him and his wife in Florida, and it was a memorable reunion, which would never have happened except for TWS. The attached picture is of Red Beach at Camp Garcia, Puerto Rico, about a mile from our power plant.
1SG Randy Taylor, U.S. Army (2002-2023)
What was your favorite piece of military equipment – firearm, apparel, vehicle, aircraft, boat, etc. – and why? What was your least favorite?:
The Mighty Woobie and the faded ACU
The mighty poncho liner or “woobie” as we called it has always been my most favorite piece of military equipment. It kept me warm in the field during patrol base operations, during deployments and even when lounging at the house. I always kept it towards the top of my rucksack, in my wet weather bag just under my spare socks, t-shirt and boots for easy access. I remember using it all the time even in warmer temperatures and often rolled it into a small burrito to function as a surprisingly decent pillow. It provided comfort in austere environments, and I believe I shared in this perception amongst my peers and leaders alike. Now that I reflect on it, there were many times a group of my peers would be huddled with woobies wrapped around our shoulders like cloaks, smoking and joking around the burn pit between missions in Iraq. We considered ourselves professional homeless bums, but we did so in a uniformed manner which always was our stance when criticized by my leadership. I still use my woobie to this day and have been for the past 22 years or so. I also enjoyed my field jacket liner as well; it was a defeated feeling I had turning that in, as well as the rest of my equipment to CIF as I was wrapping up my Army career to a close. When I reflect on it, I had so much sentimental value attached to this gear as it all served its purpose and accompanied me with all my shared hardships.
On the reverse side considering when the Army transitioned from Desert Camouflage Uniform (DCU) to the Army Combat Uniform (ACU) in April of 2005. I was initially excited for a fresh new digital look but after acquiring my first pair I was so thrown off from its light color scheme. It appeared as if every bit of dirt and oil was attracted to the fabric. The uniform would fade significantly after several washes, turning an almost pinkish hue around the reinforced fabric at the elbows and knees. This ACU introduced the zipper which would break if not properly cared for and the Velcro added a whole new layer of accountability as Velcro became more and more unbound from the uniform with use/ washing. Nametapes and shoulder patches frequently went missing as they fell off when wearing the IBA or brushing shoulders against other soldiers. I remember seeing so many patches and nametapes in the Motor pool, Barracks and around the installation. There were even stressful and embarrassing moments associated with loose Velcro, I can recall going a whole day without a nametape until I realized it was missing as I was washing my hands in front of the mirror in the bathroom before the end of the day close-out formation. I can say that the introduction of his uniform was quite possibly one of my least favorite uniforms I have owned during my tenure in the Army on Active Duty.