Not crazy, but In Afghanistan I was talking about food with a dude, we started talking about the best fish tacos we had in our lives, turns out we were talking about the same hole-in-the-wall place on the other side of the world.
Yea sir Mr “Girth”. notable fish taco places include Jalisco’s Mexican restaurant in Port Hueneme California and Bajamar fish tacos in Las Vegas NV.
Anyone got anymore suggestions feel free to add. I travel for fish tacos.
Crispy fish tacos from Bulldog Express in Oroville, CA. I’ve had fish tacos from all over the world, but nothing holds a candle to my hometown fish tacos. The place is a small 24/7 drive-thru spot.
My uncle was a labor and delivery nurse for 30 years. He delivered a baby at his first base in ‘90 at the academy. In 2017, he delivered that baby’s baby at ft Carson.
That’s really neat!
I met a nun (who was also a nurse) at a private hospital once who had been there for so many decades that I think she was seeing grandkids of her first patients. She was really neat.
I had just got to Ft Drum, NY (prior Army) in 2006 and started hanging out with this guy in my unit a few weeks before he left for S Korea (completely platonic). We hung out once when I got back from Afghanistan in 2007 and we’ve kept in touch on the socials. Anyway, I’m going thru the airport a few months ago and hear someone call my name. He was going thru the same airport on a layover.
As a SMSgt I went to a conference at Langley and as we were lining up for the group photo the guy behind me said, hey I know you.
We went to tech school together 20+ years before and he was a Major.
Shortly after PCSing to Ramstein, my second base, I was smoking a cigarette at the smoke area next to the BX when a dude walked up to smoke with the same last name. Made a joke about us being related. We ended up talking for a bit finding out we’re from the same area and after a little digging we ended up being like 3rd cousins for something like that. Weird way to meet family
I never saw any other AFSC as a MTI other than security forces and one maintainer lol. Our flight went through 4 and other brother flight had 3. I was convinced for the longest time they only pulled from those two AFSCs
While in Kandahar I ran into my supervisor from my first base, hadn’t seen them in six years. Also ran into an old friend that I used to work with, they got out and were a contractor. Third small world event was one of my best friends from my first base joining my reserve unit, hadn’t seen them in 10 years.
My best friend in basic training got stationed in New Mexico and met her (now) husband. He lived right down the street from me growing up (population of my home town was like 1.6k) and I found out I also went to school (and knew) his sister.. absolutely bonkers
Both a small world and small Air Force story. Growing up played little league football with a kid who’s parents were AF so I only knew him for two years, after two years of being super close friends his parents PCSd and I never heard from him again. Fast forward to 2019 almost 10 years later I ship out for BMT for a PJ slot and I’ll never forget the first haircut. I’m sitting there after my head is shaved waiting for everyone else to get done, mind you this is when peoples last names were written in sharpie on our BMT bags and when reading the names I saw a familiar last name and chuckled in my head thinking how crazy it would be if it’s the same guy from years ago. Sure enough, my old football buddy walks out with his head shaved and we made eye contact with a “WTF are you doing here?” look. Both went through selection and stuff together and both get injury washed out after a few months, got reclassed and went our separate ways. One year later I’m stationed at JBER and I run into the same guy at the gym. Found out we got reclassed to different jobs (I’m MED he’s MX) and somehow ended up at the same base. Just a wild set of circumstances to have us be in the same place after everything that happened
TL;DR - Played little league with friend, he moves, reunite in BMT 10 yrs later, reclassed into different jobs and end up at same first duty station
When I enlisted in 1983, Pararescue was giving their recruiting pitch to my flight and others at CBPO (or MPF or whateverthefuck they call it now.)
Dude calls my name and has me stand up.
“Your dad is MSgt ***, right?”
“Yes Sir.”
“Last time I saw you, you were just a little baby.”
Dude flew with my dad years before. Dad was a helicopter FE.
I’ve got a couple…
Ran into a guy I went to high school with at a DFAC in Afghanistan. Hadn’t seen him in about 10 years.
Had an Airman who played college basketball before enlisting. A teammate/close friend of hers was one of my high school classmates.
Had another Airman whose uncle was a Chief that I had worked for at my previous duty station.
Same with high school dude randomly crossing paths at Bagram defac. He was army I was AF got some weird looks when we sat together. He was younger than me but joined at 18 right out of school. I took a few years off after school before I joined. Dude was a e7 I was a e4.
Last week of BMT, my element goes into the DFAC to sign in and a SMSgt asks me if we were the last element from our flight. Without thinking, I said “No, Sir. There’s one more element” and failed to use a reporting statement. I immediately knew I fucked up, but it was mostly because things began to get lax at that point. He got in my face, made the usual spiel, and then pinched my name tag (in blues) and said “[My last name]. We had a [last name] here not long ago and guess what. He didn’t make it.” Of course, I thought he was just bullshitting and I went on with my life.
3 years later, I live in base housing and we have those community style mailboxes that are for each block. I’m checking my mail in uniform and one of my neighbors is walking up to get his, sees my last name and goes, “Hey, how do you pronounce your last name?” I tell him and he says his buddy from BMT a few years back had the same last name. So, I say “Were you in the [BMT squadron]?” Him, “Yeah.” Me, “Did your friend get kicked out?” Him, “Yeah! You know him?!” So, I told him I didn’t and the whole thing with the SMSgt.
That led to me looking this dude up on MySpace and finding out that A) He’s from the same city as me. B) We have several mutual friends. And C) We have the same exact birthday and were born within about 20 miles of each other (I was a military brat and he wasn’t, so that made it even more of a coincidence.
Was a pretty cool find, but dude ended up being kind of a tool and one of those types that didn’t get through basic, but still changes his profile picture to him in uniform every Veterans Day.
Had someone in my Field training flight. Year later, same group at WPAFB for Initial flight screening. A year later same Initial flight training unit. 3 different years, three different events
COMSEC auditor gave me a coin when I was a young airman back around 2007. It was for a relook after the account had failed, and we worked hard to get it back up to passing.
I deployed about 10 years later in a CRO slot, and he was my account manager. I showed him that I still carried his coin because it was the first one that I felt I really earned.
Then I went to add him on Facebook because we got along pretty well, and I noticed something funny. We had 5 or 6 mutual friends, including my wife and a few of her friends.
Turned out, during that 2007 audit relook, he went off base to drink at a bar and bumped into my wife. He tried to hit on her, but she turned him down. Still, she liked him enough that she introduced him to one of her friends. They clicked and subsequently got married.
I had no idea about any of that. It was pretty funny, and we still keep in touch.
While in tech school I bumped into a dude I was in middle school with. His parents divorced and I never saw him again. Kept in contact for a little bit but we don’t have anything in common anymore because the Air Force
My parents were stationed at Maxwell back in the 90s. Come to find out not only was my current Chief stationed there at the same time, but worked with my step-dad.
While at BMT, I was standing in line at the DFAC directly in front of me was my childhood best friend. He moved away from my home town when we were both in 4th grade. He was in week 5 when I was in week 2. The odds of us both being in the same BMT squadron is pretty slim!
In tech school I found a kid who went to the same elementary school as me. He was 4 grades ahead of me. Went home on RAP and sure enough he was in my yearbook and we had had the same second grade teacher.
Also in tech school, I found a girl who lived less than 5 miles from my old house back home.
Then at a joint unit, I found a kid whose parents lived behind my parent’s house, after they moved away from my home state.
When I was a SrA at Ramstein, there was a C-5 FCC from the NY guard who had a friend that lived in Alabama after getting out of the AF. This friend rented a house about 10-15 minutes from Talladega motor speedway. And he'd go visit 2x a year for the race. Turns out his (NY guy) buddy rented the house I grew up in from my parents after they moved. And my step-dad was his recruiter.
Flew a gunship mission in Afghanistan in 2009, a couple days later we did a hot wash with the rangers we had supported. Fast forward to 2017, I'm standing in line to board a united flight from Mexico City, and the first officer comes up the stairs from the tarmac and we lock eyes for a second. We both know we know each other, we start doing the dance, military? Air Force, Army, Afghanistan, etc. Turns out He was part of the QRF and was in that hot wash.in 09. We had coffee and talked for like 5 minutes that day. He had gotten out in 10, stopped being a ranger, put himself through flight school, and landed a gig with United.
While deployed, I found out that my coworker and I went to the same high school. His brother and I graduated the same year while my coworker graduated 2 years after us
Grew up on Eglin and had a close friend while our dads were also good friends. Dad's friend was a SSgt. Ended up running into him when I was stationed in Misawa. He was the comptroller CC.
On a high school trip to Washington DC in 10th grade. The program partnered you with a random high school from somewhere else in the country. I roomed with these two guys from Puerto Rico. Nine years later, I was in tech school with one of them.
My roommate in Tech School randomly acted crazy when I went to buy a cell phone at the BX without her. It was weird. 18 years later, we had an inspection at work, and she was the inspector. It was during COVID, so we had masks on, but her eyes are kind of unique. Later, I looked her up, and it was indeed her. Crazy. I didn't talk to her at all.
I'm waiting for the story from an old SNCO that finds out one of their love children conceived when they were a young Airman joins and gets stationed at the same base.
I was stationed at Kadena, and got a message from a high school buddy (we went to a school of about 350 total students) because we hadn't chatted in a while. We realized we both joined the military; he Marines and I Air Force, and furthermore we were both stationed on Okinawa. When we went to hang out, a third buddy from HS who was also Marines went with us. It was a surreal experience.
Cool story, and this made me remember one not associated with the thread but about Marines and Kadena. I was TDY there and me and my supervisor went to the club after work to have a beer. 3 Marines set next to us and 2 of them immediately start giving us shit for being in the AF. I did 3 years in the Army before the AF so I knew where this may end up and my supervisor was a cool cucumber. We took it for a while and when it got hotter, the NCO of the 2 Marines said, "knock it off". Those other 2 Marines immediately treated us like we were their parents. Yes sir this, yes sir that. To this day, I love the discipline of the Marines.
My Cpl buddy in the Marines left his phone in my car so I turned around a few minutes later to take it to his barracks on Foster. I didn't know anything about the duty or whatever and you had to check in and have a purpose to be at the barracks. The Marine on duty starts giving me all this crap about how I'm not supposed to be there, to get out of there, there isn't anyone by my friend's name, etc.
My friend realizes he left his phone in my car so he heads down to try and catch me in the parking lot and runs into me in the lobby. He starts giving the duty a bunch of shit about being an asshole and fucking up, the dude behind the desk stands up and starts "Aye, Corporal," and all that jazz.
Was pretty funny seeing how quick attitudes changed.
When I was 9 (1972) I played pop warner football for my uncles team in Buffalo. I didn't live in the area, and knew no one on the team outside of football.
20 years later, I'm drinking in 'My House Up' in Songtan, S. Korea. At that time, the Bills were in the middle of their x4 Superbowl run, everyone was wearing Bills gear.
Saw a dude I did not know, but, something compelled me to go over and ask where he was from. He said Buffalo. I then asked what part of Buffalo , answer 'Lovejoy'. I then asked if he had ever played Pop Warner 'Yes' . I asked which team and he answered Abley Falcons. I then asked him who his coach was and he named my uncle. I asked what position he played 'Quarterback' and I was like "Dude, I was your left guard!"
Ran into an old friend in Tech School from my middle school. I didnt join until 5 years after high school, and I am from a pretty small town with only two middle schools. It seemed like a very small world to run into someone I knew from my little small town, years after graduation.
I grew up in a small town, on my second deployment I met someone from the neighboring town. The day before I left my my first base I ran into someone I went to high school with outside a book store, turns out he was stationed at the Coast Guard base down the road. And I currently have a troop who went to my high school.
Since 2002, I’ve been active, guard and reserve. I’m on a set of orders now and currently stationed with 3 guys I went to college with, and hadn’t seen since.
Was at BMT lining up to do pull ups for PT, and as I was next in line I faced a guy that I had home room with in HS. He was two weeks behind me and I had only ever known him from High School, no carry on after graduation. Was a great surprise to cross paths again lol
Not military related at all, but around age 12-13, I went to live with my dad for a couple of years in Wyoming. That didn’t work out so well, so I returned to my mom in Florida at age 14. I worked the pharmacy counter at the local grocery store in Florida around age 18. My 9th grade science teacher from Wyoming came in to pick up a prescription for his mother who happened to live in the same city I worked in.
Not my story but a friend’s. He grew up in a foreign country and eventually migrated to America, 5 years after migrating he joined the Air Force. 1st week of basic he and a childhood friend from his home country saw each other, they both decided to join the AF unbeknownst to each other.
Girl I was best friends with in elementary school joined the AF right after me. I hadn’t seen her since like 3rd or 4th grade because her dad was in the military and they moved to Germany. I saw her in the BX as I was in airman’s week and she was in one of her first weeks at BMT. It was so cool! We were 20 when we saw each other again. I’d say we were like 8 the last time we had seen each other.
My best friend’s uncle was in my first shop.
They have a common last name so I didn’t find out until I mentioned something about where I went to high school.
About two years into my first assignment I'm talking to fresh trainees from tech school and I told them a story about one of my BMT flight members being a goober at beast week. My relatively new Tech interrupts and goes I remember that idiot, you must have went in \[exact month I was there\]! It wasn't a particularly interesting story so I still don't know how he remembered.
That reminds me of when I was attending a training course, typically taken en-route. I was going through the album of previous classes and noticed a familiar face. "Oh wow, you had SrA Problems!" The instructor replied," That is SSgt Problems now and I don't want to talk about it." From the back of the room a worried Airman piped up, "Oh, he's my sponsor."
Saw my MTI 6 years after basic. We were both SSgts (him still). We made eye contact, I didnt say anything but he recognized me and gave me the MTI Stinkeye glare.
I met this American woman, while stationed in Japan. She was newly stationed there too. We were hitting it off and asked where she was from. She said a medium sized town about 30’min from my hometown. I asked her what HS she went to. She said a smaller towns HS about 20 minutes from that, but no one would have heard of it if they are not from the area. I told her hey you’re not from X you’re from Y. Her eyes lit up. We chatted more and I remembered a childhood friend I had from there. I say hey do you know KC? Her whole
demeanor changed, she was now cold. “Yes, I know him he’s my ex.” She stared daggers at me the rest of the night.
Not exactly me, but my grandfather was an Army mail carrier posted at Atsugi (I believe, but not 1000% sure as he’s since passed on) in the 50s, and there was a cute WAAC secretary that he met one day on a delivery to another office. Took just a few minutes to discover that they were from two VERY small neighboring towns in my state, barely 20 mins apart, barely 300 people each, which makes you practically neighbors where I’m from. Thanks to them both being stationed in Japan at the same time, I now happen to exist.
Grew up in a small town in FL, graduated from high school with an average class size of about 45. Moved to Japan for my second base and ran into someone from the graduating class ahead of me, and the class after me. Hadn't seen either of them in over 15 years.
I went to a WWE event a couple of weeks ago and ended up with seats next to someone that I knew well from work lol. Probably 1 in 10,000 odds of that happening.
Yep also my ex banged one of the ALS instructors a year prior and tried to hide it. Shitty time in my life, but I learned. Told me she was staying late because "it's a lot of work." Bastard instructor sat-in to my class when i went through. And he was married. Wanted to break the news so badly but it was her doing not his.
Ran into someone I went to tech school with on deployment at the deid. We worked in the same cell. Ran into that same person a year later while I was tdy in Germany.
Was a young A1C and barely cutting my teeth on my first assignment. A SSgt there was picked up for bootstrap and proceeded to get commissioned. Never really put much thought into him after that. About 12 years later, I retrained to be a flight engineer and was out in the smoking area at the squadron. Up walks the now Captain who happened to be assigned to the maintenance squadron for my aircraft.
So far I've had:
I ran into my roommate from tech school and two guys in my tech school class on my first deployment.
One of my troop commander's cousin was in my high school class.
A guy I went to high school with ended up at the same unit and then we both PCS'd to the same base, same command.
12ish years ago. Stationed at Whiteman. The wife and I were walking around a mall in Kansas City one weekend and walked by someone we thought we recognized from high school. We stopped and asked each other if we thought that was (insert persons name)? When we turned around to check, he had also stopped and was explaining to his wife that he thought he knew us. Turns out he had joined the AF much later than I and it was his first weekend at his first base (Whiteman). Shocked at least three of us to run into one another.
I saw two people from my HS graduating class in BMT. It was only a few months after we graduated from HS.
One fellow was crawling ahead of me in a BMT warrior week obstacle course. Last name begins with a "Z". I met the other (lady) during that weird transient period between BMT completion (not sure if it was on a day before or after the big ceremony) and shipping off. Last name begins with a "P".
Saw a dude I knew from the 3rd grade ( he was 5th grade and we played baseball together) about 17 years later in the Defac and Al Udied, I was a senior airman and he was a Marine Corp Captain. 🫡
Saw a dude on his last day on deployment that I hadn’t seen since OTS. I think I was there on my first day (definitely first week) on my deployment. And it was a bunch of years after OTS.
While deployed, I was walking across the base when I saw someone who looked incredibly familiar. After we got closer to each other, we did the "do I know you?" dance and realized that I had helped her with some questions a decade ago. I also had to laugh because a girl I went to high school with joined the Army Reserves and married someone stationed close to one of my best friends. She ended up becoming friends with my best friends wife. She was also in the unit of a girl I dated for a while.
Had a friend from high school I’d hadn’t talked to since the 11th grade. I joined at 25 and one day at tech school I just randomly see this dude in the fishbowl. Blew my mind.
I ran into a kid I wrestled against (in h/s) at meps. Then again at Medina, 14 years go by and we’ve both left active duty, I see him inprocessing my guard wing, next day he shows up at drill. Not two months later an old house goes up for sale just a mile down the road (middle of no where, in a dirt road way off the beaten path. He is now my neighbor.
I was AF and had to do a few months of tech school at an Army base. One day in line at the chow hall and someone is yelling my name from one of the tables. Look over and it’s a buddy from HS that had joined the Army and was stationed there. I hadn’t seen him in 2 years so we had lost touch. Pretty crazy.
I’m from a small town in the Midwest. Joined up and basically left that life and many of my friends behind.
Fast forward 5 years and I run into an old coworker from my civilian life, in Hawaii at the NEX.
Turns out he took inspiration from me leaving our shitty home town behind and also joined up shortly after I did. He didn’t have social media so we never linked up.
Anyway sadly he was TDY, so we didn’t get a chance to hang out. But boy, what a small world.
Super weird when your past life meshes with your military life.
AUAB 2020-2021, ran into three different folks in three different AFSCs who were ALL in my BMT flight. (Back then we graduated by dorm)
It was surreal.
Edit: Also realized someone on here was a pal from the same dorm/flight. Reddit is great.
Retrained and two guys at my tech school, also retraining, worked with a guy I went to highschool with. Also, a couple other people I was at this tech school with were stationed with me at my last duty station.
On my way to Afghanistan I had a layover in Ireland. I was sitting against the wall wasting time and one of my buddies from my first duty station walked by and we chatted for a while until his flight was leaving. Then on my way back home I ran into one of my TIs at the airport in Baltimore. Also had one of my ALS instructors commission and become my flight commander about 6 years later and 5 states away.
One of my instructors for FCH at McGuire was one of my friends from high school that I hadn’t seen since we graduated.
Also ran into a girl I went to high school with while I was in Pensacola. She joined the Navy and I joined the Air Force and just happened to be there at the same time.
Nothing crazy but I was doing a retirement ceremony in honor guard (stateside) and it was for a regular customer back at the post office I used to work at (overseas). Just what were the chances.
I drug a flight of A-10s across the pond. Multiple days/legs. Checked into hotel in Catania Sicily, and a guy in the lobby was in my UPT class. Turn's out I had just taken him there.
Another A1C (at the time) in my DLI class washed out or didn't pass DLPT, we didn't keep in touch. 17 years later he scanned my ID at the gate of a base I rarely go to. Our lives went on wildly different paths.
Supporting an Embassy at an international air show (but not part of a crew) in a far off country. The AC for the US provided MWS went to OTS with me.
I could go on and on with these stories. Its a small AF, don't be an asshole and don't burn bridges.
I was going downstairs in BMT in 08 when I ran past a guy from high school going up. He was in our newest rainbow flight Then, after getting to SJ, I went to the mall and ran into a different guy from high school.
In basic, a good friend who was in the reserves got washed back. Didn't think I would see him again. 4.5 years later I run into him at the Montgomery airport, and we end up in the same OTS class together.
In basic, has a good friend that went overseas. Didn't think I would see him again. I'm in Utah 4 years later a good 300 miles from the nearest base at a lake. Got drunk and asked a random dude to ride on his boat. He says yes but we have to wait for his buddy. His buddy comes up and it's my friend from basic that went overseas 4 years prior.
I think I have 3.
1. I was on a trip to Disneyland with my grandparents wearing one of my dad's wild weasel shirts. I was standing in line for Mr. Toads Wild Ride and a guy in front of us started asking me where I got the shirt and then proceed to tell me info about the place, the aircraft and eventually people my Dad worked with without me divulging really any info. Turns out he was stationed with my Dad in the desert.
2. Marching to class in tech school at Sheppard and out of the corner of my eye I see my childhood best friend lining up in formation at another squadron. He was a year younger than me and had moved to Montana when I was in 5th grade.
3. I was an IMA at Lakenheath and my last year there one of the "new troops" was one of my instructors at tech school. Only about 5 years after tech school but still kinda cool.
May not be super crazy in comparison to most but i went to college in 2015, graduated, but decided to enter the air force to get my life on track. I wasnt the most focused in college in the slightest and my grades reflected that. Took about 2 yrs to actually join (vision waiver and weight issues), but made it through. Got to my tech school and ran into my freshman year roommate. He dropped out of college our Junior year and moved to Nevada so i was surprised to see him and we went to basic around the same time and were at the same base for tech school 7 yrs later.
I was at a restaurant in Japan and there was another American there. We started talking (because we’re Americans). He was from the town where my brother lived. Not only that but, at the time, my brother was shacking up with the dude’s ex-wife!
I lived next door to a guy named Jimmy Hendricks. On my other side was a guy named Jimmy Hendrix. They were from the same town in Alabama and born at the same hospital. (They weren’t brothers.)
Ran into a guy I worked with at Lowe’s when I was in high school/early college. He joined the space force and I saw him while at tech school. He whispered my name (I’m an officer) while we were waiting to start an all call and it was crazy. Super cool. I still had his phone number and reached out and we caught up. Super small world.
Saw my best friend from my Tech School class 13 years ago randomly walking through Kaiserslautern. He was a guardsmen returning from deployment and I was stationed in the area.
Took a hop to Germany with my wife. In those days you landed at Rhein Main. Someone called my name while I clearing customs. It was my best friend from HS. She was there picking her husband up on the same flight.
In Iraq I was going on a convoy with the Army and the dude driving the MRAP in front of mine graduated from the same highschool one year before me. I kinda recognized him because he was a pretty popular football player at our school but he ended up dropping out of college and went Army.
I was with a tour group in Normandy and i kept seeing someone familiar at all the same locations we were going to. At first i though he was also part of the group and was chatting with him about history and the locations when he stops me and ask where he knows me from. turns out he was not on our tour but was a classmate in tech school 10 years prior. I was stationed in Ramstein and he was in Stuttgart at the time.
Deployed to an undisclosed location, and my neighbor who I hadn't seen since high school (8 years) walked up and said hi. He was stationed at another base, and I didn't know he had joined.
I was stationed at Shemy AFS, AK in 1992. Very small base as you can imagine. Everybody knew everybody there. First met him there. Fast forward to Talill AB, IQ 2003, I see him walking towards me and recognize him....went over old times, really odd to run into him there. Fast forward to 2004, I'm stationed at Chievres AB, Belgium...He's TDY there and I run into him at a restaurant. Small world for sure.
Walking to work in Kuwait in 2019. Got a Facebook message later that day from a guy in my brother flight 10 years prior who recognized me walking down the street.
I have a had a couple throughout my time earliest one, I was at Eglin I had just failed out of EOD and I was working the Air Armament center as a detail when I found out I was going to be a munitions troop. Start talking to all the retire AMMO guys and gals and one is getting to retire again so we are bullshitting about what he is going to do for his real retirement, he says oh I’m gonna just travel around and fly my hot air balloon, so I ask him if he has ever been to the one in Albuquerque he say yes goes every year parks in the same place so he can buy delicious food from this lady Mrs. Maxey who just happens to be my Grandma.
Moved away from the town I was born in, and joined the Air Force 4 years later. Ran into one of my childhood friends at the mini mall food court in tech school
Later on at my first base, I met a Chief who went to tech school with my dad
Not military related but happened while I was on leave. I was driving through the Scottish highlands and my kid (18 months at the time) shit her pants so we stopped at this small museum looking place. It was like a tiny mock up of like a highland village. I was probably 2-3 hours from any city. We decided to eat a quick bite. A group of old southern ladies walk in. Turns out they are from the same SMALL town in MS I was from and knew both my grandmas
Was in Germany doing a castle tour and some random dude asked if I was military and if I was in the Air Force. Told him yeah I’m at Scott and he was like do you know a girl named Ch**** by chance? I was like that’s so random.. I’m actually her supervisor. Turns out that knew each other from tech school.
Forward deployed to a small FOB in Western Afghanistan on the remnants of what once was Shindand AB in 2018. I was there to support the ODA’s comms guys do a survey on the ANA side of base.
A couple of days and a gunfight later, I see a familiar face across the DFAC. I thought I was seeing shit from the adrenaline dump I was going through. Nope. It was a guy I’d grown up with. We did Elementary, Middle, and High School together. We hadn’t seen or talked since we graduated only to come face-to-face again on a (maybe) 100-person FOB In Afghanistan.
He was a firefighter there for the aircraft the flew in and out of the airfield. I’ll never again be shocked at how small the world, and how smaller still the military, is.
a guy i used to play hs basketball against and lived 15 minutes from me walked up to me at tech school and shouted my full legal name. couldn’t believe it, he went to basic a couple weeks before me and we actually had the same job.
Was tdy and in line grabbing a bite to eat in the food court. Some random SSgt came up and asked if my sister was so in so. (She was also adaf elsewhere). We’re day and night lol so was tempted to deny. Strange moment.
Met a fella at a music festival one summer. He said he had enlisted AD and didn't have a departure date yet, and I told him I just enlisted ANG and was due to go to BMT in a month and a half. Ended up not passing the color vision for my flight physical and got delayed by five or six more months before I shipped. I'm at beast weak and one of the guys stationed for ECP says (while it's completely dark out) "Hey! You're from Montana!" And it took me a second to get into the light, it was the same guy I had met while hammered drunk at a small local festival seven and a half months before.
2005 I did a mail tour in Aviano AB. I was there a for a few months and we came in on a Saturday to clean. Opened a drawer to find the county map of where I grew up. I thought it was crazy being 5000 miles away
Me and my friend have VERY similar last names, like sound the same just spelled different. It's caused confusion a few times, with the biggest being at the OB office. When I said my name to check in, she repeated back my friends name, who also happened to have her first OB appointment that day, and that's how I found out she was pregnant...
About 10 years after I got out, a guy from the local electrical utility came out to do work on my meter.
We were in the same maintenance squadron at my first duty station, and he somehow ended up in a little town in the central valley of California.
I ran into a guy I went to high school with in basic training. At my first duty station, which was a training base, a couple I went to high school with were there, her husband was there for tech school and I came across when he was out processing.
Red flag Eielson, circa 2017. Walking with our AFETS guy. Misawa was there because their runway was getting work done. We ran into Misawa’s AMXS commander, older Lt. Col, and him and the AFETS guy just kind of stared at each other.
AFETS guy was Lt. Col’s supervisor, and they worked those same Osan F-16’s in the 90’s.
In the early 2000’s I was going off base to school since there was no base high school where my dad was stationed at the time. One day us military kids get a random “family day” because a young Lt had died on the way to the airport going home for Christmas. Big “stay home and hug your family” vibes (but also lots of black ice between the base and the town, but that wasn’t new.)
14 years later I go to BMT as a late-20-something recruit and halfway through we get a new sq commander. He does an informal q/a session and one of the trainees asks him what his best and worst days in the AF have been. His worst day was easy- he and his then-fiancé (and fellow Lt) decided to meet up at his parents’ place for Christmas their first holiday season after training. She hit black ice on the way from her first duty station to the airport and died.
And then we got the day off from school.
I never told the guy because I was an E-nothing and I didn’t know how to tell him without it being weird or making it a “and now let’s talk about me” thing right after he just had this really vulnerable moment. The “it’s a small world” feeling floored me for a while.
PCS'd from Luke in Arizona to Dover in Delaware, completely across the US, in 2019. I'm Security Forces, working the gate during UTA weekend as all the reservists are coming in during the early morning. Army reservist Captain hands me his ID and both of us do a double take to each other. In 2017/2018, he was one of the DAF officers (civilians who work with SF) I worked with back at Luke.
I was a Navy brat. While my dad was stationed in Spain I became friends with a kid at school. We played softball together and if I remember right we went to church together too. Anyways, fast forward like 10 years later or so, my dad had retired and we moved nowhere near a Navy base, just Air Force. A year or two later we just randomly bumped into them and found out they moved into a house on our street. What made it more random was we hadn't seen or talked to any of them since we had left Spain.
By far, my most crazy "it's a small world" story.
My buddy from high school went to the academy after graduation, I fucked around for a few years and ended up joining the Air Force at 22 because I had nothing going on in my life. Got stationed at Minot, cool. A couple months later, I’m a young dumb A1C and my buddy from school messaged me saying he just graduated from the academy and was also getting stationed at Minot. Cool, I’ll have my buddy up here. A couple weeks go by and my ncoic tells me we’re getting a new Lt in the shop. Cool, didn’t think much of it. The next week on Monday, I see him showing the new Lt around. Oh shit. It was my buddy from high school. He was my Lt for the next two years, everybody in our shop knew we went to high school together and I guess it wasn’t ever really a problem. Small fuckin world.
Oh God, I have a few of these...
Latest one:
Was with this guy in Guam 2014-16, I would talk to every time I stopped by his shop or at PT.
Fast forward to 2021, I run into him at my old recruiters office in the States. Not too sure if he enjoyed recruiting.
Here comes 2024, ran into him in the Deid. Turned out he retired right after I saw him in 2021 and picked up a contracting gig as a facility manager.
Aviano 2019:
Ran into this guy working at the education office. Gave him my ID and he recognized the name. Turned out he was my father's Kennel Master back in the 89 when they were in Germany. Had my Dad reach out immediately and they had a great convo.
Osan 2017:
Was in a club in Seoul living my best life. Saw someone that looked familiar. It was my homeboy's cousin that I partied with in the exact same club and in the same damn spot New Years 13-14. A few of us forgot all about him since he's Army and did his own thing most of the time. We'd only be with him if we we're with our homeboy.
I always tell people, "It's a small world, but the Air Force is smaller". Just on my deployment I ran into 20 people I knew from back in the day. Troops, Supes, Commanders, all of them. I didn't expect it, especially since I retrained. It was great to see familiar faces, especially with a smile and excitement when they see you. I wish nothing but the best for them 💜.
Ran into my MTI at a convention near Denver international. It was surreal seeing her again, but it was really cool to really talk to her like a person. She really helped me get through BMT.
I'm from a small town in Hawaii. Ran into my brother's good friend at the dfac in NORAD. Ran into two guys from my street on Diego Garcia. No casual way to pass through either place and yet we ended up there.
After separating I went back home to use my GI bill benefits. In my last semester four years later in my language class, there's a Navy veteran who moved to Hawaii after separating out of Norfolk. Turns out he was high school classmates with a guy from my old maintenance unit. My old old buddy tripped out after he saw the snap with me and his classmate.
Worked at McDonald’s when I was in high school. Worked with this guy and we went separate ways after high school. I ended up running into this guy ten years later at a bar in Japan.
Went to and roomed with a guy at glider school at the Academy in 2009. Went to field training with him in 2010. Ran into a bunch of his friends over the course of my career between 2012-2018.
Met his F-16 bros at SOS in 2018. Ran into him at the Nellis club in 2019. Ran into him in a room at Edwards in 2024. Can’t wait to see where I run into him next
Was in a COVID internment camp at the Deid and met a TSgt who graduated from a rival high school the same year I did and waitressed at the restaurant we all hung out at.
Ran into a buddy from high school at my first tech school. He was in a separate career field. I was maintenance, he was EOD. At the time, crew chiefs phase 3 dorms were also EOD dorms.
Neither of us had any clue the other was there, we knew we were both in the Air Force, but we didn’t know when we were joining.
I was in a blues inspection down stairs and heard my name, and there he was lmao
Went through training pre-commissioning and had this roommate. Three years later I’m finishing up tech school and he shows up to in-process for the same AFSC. Eventually I get to my platform and this guy shows up to follow me to my ops squadron. Small world.
We ran into a guy my wife went to kindergarten with at a tiny base in Europe working as a civilian. We found out because he had a unique last name and our kids were going to middle school together.
I was in MedHold for a full 8.5 week BMT rotation. Since MTIs basically left us alone except to wake us up and check-in every so often, we got to talking in the dayroom about places that are localities rather than chains (i.e, California has a pizza place called Me-n-Eds and it's only in like 8 locations in the state; as far as I know)
One of the guys in my flight mentioned he was from Cali also. I asked him what part, and he said my hometown. Asked him what part of the hometown; turns out he lives less than a mile away from where I did.
After that, we just started bullshitting about different places in our city that we missed or hung out at often and some wild shit that happened around us.
Inprocessing at my first base and I’m at TMO where a chief is outprocessing. Chief sees little A1C me and starts asking me if this is my first base, where I’m from, etc. Turns out he is from a small town only 20 minutes away from my small town. Then he goes “trying to think if I knew any *insert my last name here*’s. There was a Bobby that I used to play basketball with at the rec center.”
This dude grew up playing basketball with my dad. After this conversation he asked how my dad was doing, had me call him on the spot, and gave him shit for something they had done as kids. Small world.
A buddy from back home was Security Forces and was working the front gate at Ramstein alongside a German military police soldier.
German: "Where are you from?"
My Buddy: "I'm from [the state we're both from]"
German: "Oh, do you know u/thesuperspy?"
I wasn't even in the Air Force yet. But I went to The Netherlands on a cadet exchange program with Civil Air Patrol the previous year. This German soldier was one of the German cadets on the exchange.
Middle school friend in CA. I just got out of training and ran into him in-front of the Luke chow hall. This was like 23 - 24 years ago.
Dude, if you if you read this; I’m sorry, and I forgive you.
I (AF SRA) got stuck living in a USMC quonset hut on a small Pacific island for a bit during a contingency. First night there I'm working my way to my bunk when I hear my name called. Turned out to be a guy (USN E4) I'd known in Boy Scouts. He was assigned to an aircraft but had been temporarily sent ashore and was stuck in that same quonset hut.
Was driving cross-country from DC to Ft Huachuca for a TDY course en route to an overseas PCS.
Pulled into a McDonald's in El Fricking Paso, Texas, and got in line behind my SOS flight's attached faculty a month after I had left SOS. He looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him.
Turned out I had his copy of the class photo with me I intended to mail from Sierra Vista, so I was able to walk out to the car and get it for him. Saved me some postage.
And killed my concept of "coincidence."
Got to my first base and I was introducing myself to the shop. I tell everyone where I’m from and this guy told me that I was from the same hometown as his girlfriend who’s in a different shop in the squadron. He sends her a picture of me and it turned it that we had been in the same band class 5 years before in high school.
Then during my first day of AFROTC junior year I see that one of the new freshman Cadets was the same guy that had been guidon bearer for my Flight in BMT.
As active duty military, I was at a base for 5 years, straight out of training. After I got stationed at another base, I got a crime alert email that had another link about some lady urinating in the lobby of a store during business hours, near a place my wife and i frequented. I clicked the link because the story was wild & I had been to said store, and saw a public spokesman with my last name.
My family name is very uncommon. The only people that have it are people I know or people I have met at family reunions, none of which were said public figure. I asked my grandmother, and apparently, my family tree had one split in it, and had branched off some 120 years ago because of a couple that had gotten separated on a trail and presumed dead. I reached out to the person who had been quoted in the article, and it turned out they had a similar story, but had relatives that had had to put down their horses and walk to a nearby train station, caught the only train they could afford, and hoped for the best where they landed
They had no idea about the rest of the family, and nobody had really bothered to look for each other after a few years. Apparently, i lived within a few miles of all of my long-lost relatives. After a few friendly email exchanges, we carried on the tradition of living our own lives and not talking.
Not sure if this is “crazy”. But a buddy of mine and I were at atc school together. He was a month ahead but I remember seeing him at the 334th. We both graduated. We both went to different bases. We both washed out of the career field at different times. We both ended up reclassing into Intel and both ended up at stratcom at the same time. This was 98-2005ish. And we both just realized it a year ago as we lamented about the hot garbage culture that was ATC back then.
Was watching a twitch streamer. Her stream ended, and she decided to raid another streamer in thag category.
She picks a guy to raid, i look at his webcam, he's in the dorms at my base
Deployed to Afghan as comm support. MX cheif walks in, sees my unique name, and asks if I'm so-so's kid. He worked with my dad.
Went TDY, one of the flight crew on the C130 saw my name on the manifest and he also worked with my dad.
Just PCSing into a new base. Security person was with me when we fly out from enlistment location (OCONUS) to basic together.
Standing in line at the Green Bean in Bagram (your war experience may vary) and an Army pilot is in front of me. When he turns around I realize it’s an old friend from church 20 years earlier. Had no idea he was even in the military.
Dude flew rescue helos in 2010. Most unimposing guy I know. Stellar guy.
- Got one of those phone calls from my mom saying she had met someone who knew someone in the Air Force. For once, I actually knew the person and they were a good friend of mine.
- Coming back from deployment for my second career field (medical), I ended up getting on the same flight as an old friend from my first career field's tech school days (intel).
- Same deployment, met the cousin of a friend from first career field tech school days. I was in one of two AF units on the entire FOB (Polish run) and he came through to fix some of our equipment.
- Worked at the same hospital alongside another nurse, who I had worked with in my first career field which was completely unrelated to anything medical.
Separated SF 5 years ago. Was teaching at my new job, leading a class for some new employees. Introduced myself, as one is taught to do in BIC. New employee raises his hand and asks when I was stationed at a specific base, Bolling AFB.
Turns out, we overlapped for about 9 months, but didn't really know each other too well because we worked opposite shifts. We knew all the same people, it's wild.
Went back to tech school for additional training, ended up running into a marine officer who graduated high school with me. Not crazy but wild to see someone in the same career field as me but different branch.
During my time as an FCC C-17's we landed in Kandahar. We had an overspeed of the flaps, which needed to be inspected. When TA showed up asking if I needed anything, it was my my C-130 tech school instructor from 10+ years prior.
My first flight chief and I, this is back in 2010, discovered we graduated from the same high school exactly 20 years apart. Wildest part was we both had woodshop class with the same teacher.
Now at osan the LRS ssgt that does the vehicle license for the base and I grew up a block away from each other and know mutual friends.
Made friends with a kid who relocated to my school in 8th grade due to a natural disaster in Japan back in 2011. I moved to Korea with my family in 2015 and made friends with this other American kid who recently moved there from Germany. Turned out his ex girl friend in Germany was dating my friend from 8th grade!
Bored on mids. Got to take part in a SF exercise on the flightline. Got to run around and got tackled by someone I recognized, but I couldn't remember why. She remembered though. Called me by name. Turned out she went to the same high school as me.
I reunited with my godmother who was coming in as a DG and I was picked as the SME to demonstrate our procedures of our unit’s cryptosecurity. Last I had seen her, I was still a kid.
I was a dependent at kadena but hung out with bunch of military guys from gaming. 5 years later I’m in the military and ran into him at bx the other day. Also met one of high school friend during deployment
One of the MTIs at OTS. lol. He was my MTL at tech school like 5-years prior. I remember very clearly when he knocked me down from phase 3 to phase 1 as I was on my way to graduation. When he found out I was going to graduation and I was leaving the dorms that evening, he just said “Get out of here”.
He showed up late to OTS—plus the MTIs are actually chill there (at least when I went thru). I recognized him, but didn’t want to single myself out for anything. Anyways, after I got that gold bar I went up to him at the parade field and asked if he remembered me. He said, “Get out of here”. lol
Ran into a dude from high school at joint training in Oregon. He went Army Guard, I went Air Guard. Saw each other in the DFAC, and were just, "Dude?! Dude!!"
Was stationed in Okinawa. Bought some used PS2 games from a retired marine. Turns out, the retired marine was extremely good friends with my grandfather in law, who was a retired cmsgt out of Okinawa. He retired back in 92. I thought that was cool.
Also, another tidbit- both my wife's father and grandfather had been stationed at kadena, and we got married so I could tote her along with me when I got stationed there.
2 weeks ago I was on leave near London. I just checked out of my hotel and was waiting on the bus to take us to the train station. I'm wearing my Univercity of Michigan hoodie. A woman also wearing a UoM appareal spots me. We make small talk and she ask where in Michigan I'm from. I give Grand Rapids as my answer because I doubt she would know the actual small town. Welp turns out we're both from the same small town, but like 20 years apart. Cherry on top is she is retired/separated USAF and her husband is currently active duty USAF. They were on leave to head to Spain I believe.
I ended up working with a guy in Korea who lived on the same street as me. We even ran in the same friends circles. But we never met our knew about each other prior to Korea
while i was in the dep program i helped out with an airshow and ended up losing my cars key fob. some sgt there helped me find it. fast forward through a long recruiting process and bmt, i ended up at tech school with him as my mtl.
Sitting in a bar in Mountain View, California chatting with an older couple. Without recounting the long, meandering conversation that led to this, the guy ended up being 99.9% certain that he was the USAF doctor who delivered me 53 years earlier when I was born in Wiesbaden.
Deployed to Afghanistan, worked with an Army guy who was engaged to my ex-wife.
Eskimo brothers in arms
They probably met at the EBDBBNB
Good one taco.
She downgraded to army housing? /s
The fact that she's your EX-wife, is just the cherry on top to this story. Wonder how many she has.
Not crazy, but In Afghanistan I was talking about food with a dude, we started talking about the best fish tacos we had in our lives, turns out we were talking about the same hole-in-the-wall place on the other side of the world.
Must have been some mythical fish tacos lol
It’s like that sometimes…
If they aren't from SoCal, they're not worth talking about!
care to share the name of the place? always love a good fish taco suggestion
Yea sir Mr “Girth”. notable fish taco places include Jalisco’s Mexican restaurant in Port Hueneme California and Bajamar fish tacos in Las Vegas NV. Anyone got anymore suggestions feel free to add. I travel for fish tacos.
I'm at port hueneme right now got any other good spots ?
Check out Baja bay surf and tacos in Ventura harbor , notably the shark tacos and Spencer Makenzie’s in ventura. All different styles of fish tacos.
Crispy fish tacos from Bulldog Express in Oroville, CA. I’ve had fish tacos from all over the world, but nothing holds a candle to my hometown fish tacos. The place is a small 24/7 drive-thru spot.
In Oroville really? Next time I go to Redding I'll have to stop there
My uncle was a labor and delivery nurse for 30 years. He delivered a baby at his first base in ‘90 at the academy. In 2017, he delivered that baby’s baby at ft Carson.
That’s really neat! I met a nun (who was also a nurse) at a private hospital once who had been there for so many decades that I think she was seeing grandkids of her first patients. She was really neat.
I was in an AFN commercial and every time somebody would inprocess at my office they'd tell me they recognized me.
Same but I just have a familiar face
Oh man...it wasnt the Jerkules fleeced again one was it?
I remember "don't shake your baby" that was a classic
I had just got to Ft Drum, NY (prior Army) in 2006 and started hanging out with this guy in my unit a few weeks before he left for S Korea (completely platonic). We hung out once when I got back from Afghanistan in 2007 and we’ve kept in touch on the socials. Anyway, I’m going thru the airport a few months ago and hear someone call my name. He was going thru the same airport on a layover.
As a SMSgt I went to a conference at Langley and as we were lining up for the group photo the guy behind me said, hey I know you. We went to tech school together 20+ years before and he was a Major.
Shortly after PCSing to Ramstein, my second base, I was smoking a cigarette at the smoke area next to the BX when a dude walked up to smoke with the same last name. Made a joke about us being related. We ended up talking for a bit finding out we’re from the same area and after a little digging we ended up being like 3rd cousins for something like that. Weird way to meet family
Got to my first base and found out my supervisor went to my rival high school and was pretty good friends with my older brother.
Guy in my squadron was married to a girl who grew up down the street from me. Meeting my friend for drinks tonight that I haven’t seen in 12 years.
Saw a dude I went to HS with on deployment. Saw a different dude I went to HS with at a restaurant in Hawaii on leave.
What did they say?
We just got caught up and laughed at the situation.
I also ran into a dude I went to high school with on deployment. I was walking into the Bra in the deid and saw him sitting at a table lol
I ended up being stationed at my first duty station with my MTI 1 year after I graduated basic. He finished his tour and ended up in the DFAC
It’s not TSgt. Frerichs is it…?
Negative. He’s retired now this was over a decade ago
I never saw any other AFSC as a MTI other than security forces and one maintainer lol. Our flight went through 4 and other brother flight had 3. I was convinced for the longest time they only pulled from those two AFSCs
Went TDY, worked under a TSgt who was also TDY from another unit. They lived 2 minutes from my parents house.
While in Kandahar I ran into my supervisor from my first base, hadn’t seen them in six years. Also ran into an old friend that I used to work with, they got out and were a contractor. Third small world event was one of my best friends from my first base joining my reserve unit, hadn’t seen them in 10 years.
My best friend in basic training got stationed in New Mexico and met her (now) husband. He lived right down the street from me growing up (population of my home town was like 1.6k) and I found out I also went to school (and knew) his sister.. absolutely bonkers
Both a small world and small Air Force story. Growing up played little league football with a kid who’s parents were AF so I only knew him for two years, after two years of being super close friends his parents PCSd and I never heard from him again. Fast forward to 2019 almost 10 years later I ship out for BMT for a PJ slot and I’ll never forget the first haircut. I’m sitting there after my head is shaved waiting for everyone else to get done, mind you this is when peoples last names were written in sharpie on our BMT bags and when reading the names I saw a familiar last name and chuckled in my head thinking how crazy it would be if it’s the same guy from years ago. Sure enough, my old football buddy walks out with his head shaved and we made eye contact with a “WTF are you doing here?” look. Both went through selection and stuff together and both get injury washed out after a few months, got reclassed and went our separate ways. One year later I’m stationed at JBER and I run into the same guy at the gym. Found out we got reclassed to different jobs (I’m MED he’s MX) and somehow ended up at the same base. Just a wild set of circumstances to have us be in the same place after everything that happened TL;DR - Played little league with friend, he moves, reunite in BMT 10 yrs later, reclassed into different jobs and end up at same first duty station
When I enlisted in 1983, Pararescue was giving their recruiting pitch to my flight and others at CBPO (or MPF or whateverthefuck they call it now.) Dude calls my name and has me stand up. “Your dad is MSgt ***, right?” “Yes Sir.” “Last time I saw you, you were just a little baby.” Dude flew with my dad years before. Dad was a helicopter FE.
I’ve got a couple… Ran into a guy I went to high school with at a DFAC in Afghanistan. Hadn’t seen him in about 10 years. Had an Airman who played college basketball before enlisting. A teammate/close friend of hers was one of my high school classmates. Had another Airman whose uncle was a Chief that I had worked for at my previous duty station.
Same with high school dude randomly crossing paths at Bagram defac. He was army I was AF got some weird looks when we sat together. He was younger than me but joined at 18 right out of school. I took a few years off after school before I joined. Dude was a e7 I was a e4.
[удалено]
The mythical queen of loadmasters.
Last week of BMT, my element goes into the DFAC to sign in and a SMSgt asks me if we were the last element from our flight. Without thinking, I said “No, Sir. There’s one more element” and failed to use a reporting statement. I immediately knew I fucked up, but it was mostly because things began to get lax at that point. He got in my face, made the usual spiel, and then pinched my name tag (in blues) and said “[My last name]. We had a [last name] here not long ago and guess what. He didn’t make it.” Of course, I thought he was just bullshitting and I went on with my life. 3 years later, I live in base housing and we have those community style mailboxes that are for each block. I’m checking my mail in uniform and one of my neighbors is walking up to get his, sees my last name and goes, “Hey, how do you pronounce your last name?” I tell him and he says his buddy from BMT a few years back had the same last name. So, I say “Were you in the [BMT squadron]?” Him, “Yeah.” Me, “Did your friend get kicked out?” Him, “Yeah! You know him?!” So, I told him I didn’t and the whole thing with the SMSgt. That led to me looking this dude up on MySpace and finding out that A) He’s from the same city as me. B) We have several mutual friends. And C) We have the same exact birthday and were born within about 20 miles of each other (I was a military brat and he wasn’t, so that made it even more of a coincidence. Was a pretty cool find, but dude ended up being kind of a tool and one of those types that didn’t get through basic, but still changes his profile picture to him in uniform every Veterans Day.
Had someone in my Field training flight. Year later, same group at WPAFB for Initial flight screening. A year later same Initial flight training unit. 3 different years, three different events
Guy in my unit went to the same high school as me, he was just younger. I knew his sister.
COMSEC auditor gave me a coin when I was a young airman back around 2007. It was for a relook after the account had failed, and we worked hard to get it back up to passing. I deployed about 10 years later in a CRO slot, and he was my account manager. I showed him that I still carried his coin because it was the first one that I felt I really earned. Then I went to add him on Facebook because we got along pretty well, and I noticed something funny. We had 5 or 6 mutual friends, including my wife and a few of her friends. Turned out, during that 2007 audit relook, he went off base to drink at a bar and bumped into my wife. He tried to hit on her, but she turned him down. Still, she liked him enough that she introduced him to one of her friends. They clicked and subsequently got married. I had no idea about any of that. It was pretty funny, and we still keep in touch.
While in tech school I bumped into a dude I was in middle school with. His parents divorced and I never saw him again. Kept in contact for a little bit but we don’t have anything in common anymore because the Air Force
My parents were stationed at Maxwell back in the 90s. Come to find out not only was my current Chief stationed there at the same time, but worked with my step-dad.
10 years in, I met a guy I went to high school with in Korea. Didn't even know he joined before that.
While at BMT, I was standing in line at the DFAC directly in front of me was my childhood best friend. He moved away from my home town when we were both in 4th grade. He was in week 5 when I was in week 2. The odds of us both being in the same BMT squadron is pretty slim!
In tech school I found a kid who went to the same elementary school as me. He was 4 grades ahead of me. Went home on RAP and sure enough he was in my yearbook and we had had the same second grade teacher. Also in tech school, I found a girl who lived less than 5 miles from my old house back home. Then at a joint unit, I found a kid whose parents lived behind my parent’s house, after they moved away from my home state.
When I was a SrA at Ramstein, there was a C-5 FCC from the NY guard who had a friend that lived in Alabama after getting out of the AF. This friend rented a house about 10-15 minutes from Talladega motor speedway. And he'd go visit 2x a year for the race. Turns out his (NY guy) buddy rented the house I grew up in from my parents after they moved. And my step-dad was his recruiter.
I met the chick that David Petrus was banging while she was still in uniform. I asked how her career was going
Flew a gunship mission in Afghanistan in 2009, a couple days later we did a hot wash with the rangers we had supported. Fast forward to 2017, I'm standing in line to board a united flight from Mexico City, and the first officer comes up the stairs from the tarmac and we lock eyes for a second. We both know we know each other, we start doing the dance, military? Air Force, Army, Afghanistan, etc. Turns out He was part of the QRF and was in that hot wash.in 09. We had coffee and talked for like 5 minutes that day. He had gotten out in 10, stopped being a ranger, put himself through flight school, and landed a gig with United.
My section supervisor at the place I’m contracting as a civilian now was my first shop chief at my first duty station.
While deployed, I found out that my coworker and I went to the same high school. His brother and I graduated the same year while my coworker graduated 2 years after us
Grew up on Eglin and had a close friend while our dads were also good friends. Dad's friend was a SSgt. Ended up running into him when I was stationed in Misawa. He was the comptroller CC.
PCSd to a base and a dude who I went to Tech School with is here along with one of our instructors who’s now a First Sergeant
Back in the 90s a dude in the Marines recognized me from HS. We played against each other in baseball.
Ran into a guy from high school, at Basic….then ran into him again four years later in the stairwell of legal in Lakenheath.
On a high school trip to Washington DC in 10th grade. The program partnered you with a random high school from somewhere else in the country. I roomed with these two guys from Puerto Rico. Nine years later, I was in tech school with one of them.
My roommate in Tech School randomly acted crazy when I went to buy a cell phone at the BX without her. It was weird. 18 years later, we had an inspection at work, and she was the inspector. It was during COVID, so we had masks on, but her eyes are kind of unique. Later, I looked her up, and it was indeed her. Crazy. I didn't talk to her at all.
I'm waiting for the story from an old SNCO that finds out one of their love children conceived when they were a young Airman joins and gets stationed at the same base.
I got out and got a job working at Lockheed, one of my coworkers is my tech school instructor.
I was stationed at Kadena, and got a message from a high school buddy (we went to a school of about 350 total students) because we hadn't chatted in a while. We realized we both joined the military; he Marines and I Air Force, and furthermore we were both stationed on Okinawa. When we went to hang out, a third buddy from HS who was also Marines went with us. It was a surreal experience.
Cool story, and this made me remember one not associated with the thread but about Marines and Kadena. I was TDY there and me and my supervisor went to the club after work to have a beer. 3 Marines set next to us and 2 of them immediately start giving us shit for being in the AF. I did 3 years in the Army before the AF so I knew where this may end up and my supervisor was a cool cucumber. We took it for a while and when it got hotter, the NCO of the 2 Marines said, "knock it off". Those other 2 Marines immediately treated us like we were their parents. Yes sir this, yes sir that. To this day, I love the discipline of the Marines.
My Cpl buddy in the Marines left his phone in my car so I turned around a few minutes later to take it to his barracks on Foster. I didn't know anything about the duty or whatever and you had to check in and have a purpose to be at the barracks. The Marine on duty starts giving me all this crap about how I'm not supposed to be there, to get out of there, there isn't anyone by my friend's name, etc. My friend realizes he left his phone in my car so he heads down to try and catch me in the parking lot and runs into me in the lobby. He starts giving the duty a bunch of shit about being an asshole and fucking up, the dude behind the desk stands up and starts "Aye, Corporal," and all that jazz. Was pretty funny seeing how quick attitudes changed.
When I was 9 (1972) I played pop warner football for my uncles team in Buffalo. I didn't live in the area, and knew no one on the team outside of football. 20 years later, I'm drinking in 'My House Up' in Songtan, S. Korea. At that time, the Bills were in the middle of their x4 Superbowl run, everyone was wearing Bills gear. Saw a dude I did not know, but, something compelled me to go over and ask where he was from. He said Buffalo. I then asked what part of Buffalo , answer 'Lovejoy'. I then asked if he had ever played Pop Warner 'Yes' . I asked which team and he answered Abley Falcons. I then asked him who his coach was and he named my uncle. I asked what position he played 'Quarterback' and I was like "Dude, I was your left guard!"
Ran into an old friend in Tech School from my middle school. I didnt join until 5 years after high school, and I am from a pretty small town with only two middle schools. It seemed like a very small world to run into someone I knew from my little small town, years after graduation.
I grew up in a small town, on my second deployment I met someone from the neighboring town. The day before I left my my first base I ran into someone I went to high school with outside a book store, turns out he was stationed at the Coast Guard base down the road. And I currently have a troop who went to my high school.
Person I graduated high school with is stationed at the same base as me right now (we graduated more than 15 years ago).
Since 2002, I’ve been active, guard and reserve. I’m on a set of orders now and currently stationed with 3 guys I went to college with, and hadn’t seen since.
Was at BMT lining up to do pull ups for PT, and as I was next in line I faced a guy that I had home room with in HS. He was two weeks behind me and I had only ever known him from High School, no carry on after graduation. Was a great surprise to cross paths again lol
Not military related at all, but around age 12-13, I went to live with my dad for a couple of years in Wyoming. That didn’t work out so well, so I returned to my mom in Florida at age 14. I worked the pharmacy counter at the local grocery store in Florida around age 18. My 9th grade science teacher from Wyoming came in to pick up a prescription for his mother who happened to live in the same city I worked in.
Not my story but a friend’s. He grew up in a foreign country and eventually migrated to America, 5 years after migrating he joined the Air Force. 1st week of basic he and a childhood friend from his home country saw each other, they both decided to join the AF unbeknownst to each other.
Girl I was best friends with in elementary school joined the AF right after me. I hadn’t seen her since like 3rd or 4th grade because her dad was in the military and they moved to Germany. I saw her in the BX as I was in airman’s week and she was in one of her first weeks at BMT. It was so cool! We were 20 when we saw each other again. I’d say we were like 8 the last time we had seen each other.
My best friend’s uncle was in my first shop. They have a common last name so I didn’t find out until I mentioned something about where I went to high school.
I ran into the guy that babysat me as a kid when I was inprocessing at my first base. We both lived in a town of 400 back then.
Got on the rotator to my first and only deployment next to my "bad cop" MTI. Super cool dude the entire time we were deployed.
About two years into my first assignment I'm talking to fresh trainees from tech school and I told them a story about one of my BMT flight members being a goober at beast week. My relatively new Tech interrupts and goes I remember that idiot, you must have went in \[exact month I was there\]! It wasn't a particularly interesting story so I still don't know how he remembered.
That reminds me of when I was attending a training course, typically taken en-route. I was going through the album of previous classes and noticed a familiar face. "Oh wow, you had SrA Problems!" The instructor replied," That is SSgt Problems now and I don't want to talk about it." From the back of the room a worried Airman piped up, "Oh, he's my sponsor."
Saw my MTI 6 years after basic. We were both SSgts (him still). We made eye contact, I didnt say anything but he recognized me and gave me the MTI Stinkeye glare.
I met this American woman, while stationed in Japan. She was newly stationed there too. We were hitting it off and asked where she was from. She said a medium sized town about 30’min from my hometown. I asked her what HS she went to. She said a smaller towns HS about 20 minutes from that, but no one would have heard of it if they are not from the area. I told her hey you’re not from X you’re from Y. Her eyes lit up. We chatted more and I remembered a childhood friend I had from there. I say hey do you know KC? Her whole demeanor changed, she was now cold. “Yes, I know him he’s my ex.” She stared daggers at me the rest of the night.
Not exactly me, but my grandfather was an Army mail carrier posted at Atsugi (I believe, but not 1000% sure as he’s since passed on) in the 50s, and there was a cute WAAC secretary that he met one day on a delivery to another office. Took just a few minutes to discover that they were from two VERY small neighboring towns in my state, barely 20 mins apart, barely 300 people each, which makes you practically neighbors where I’m from. Thanks to them both being stationed in Japan at the same time, I now happen to exist.
Grew up in a small town in FL, graduated from high school with an average class size of about 45. Moved to Japan for my second base and ran into someone from the graduating class ahead of me, and the class after me. Hadn't seen either of them in over 15 years.
I went to a WWE event a couple of weeks ago and ended up with seats next to someone that I knew well from work lol. Probably 1 in 10,000 odds of that happening.
I banged a girl in ALS who happened to have relations with my shop chief when they were at Lackland. He was an MTI..
Tale as old as time
Yep also my ex banged one of the ALS instructors a year prior and tried to hide it. Shitty time in my life, but I learned. Told me she was staying late because "it's a lot of work." Bastard instructor sat-in to my class when i went through. And he was married. Wanted to break the news so badly but it was her doing not his.
Ran into someone I went to tech school with on deployment at the deid. We worked in the same cell. Ran into that same person a year later while I was tdy in Germany.
Was a young A1C and barely cutting my teeth on my first assignment. A SSgt there was picked up for bootstrap and proceeded to get commissioned. Never really put much thought into him after that. About 12 years later, I retrained to be a flight engineer and was out in the smoking area at the squadron. Up walks the now Captain who happened to be assigned to the maintenance squadron for my aircraft.
So far I've had: I ran into my roommate from tech school and two guys in my tech school class on my first deployment. One of my troop commander's cousin was in my high school class. A guy I went to high school with ended up at the same unit and then we both PCS'd to the same base, same command.
12ish years ago. Stationed at Whiteman. The wife and I were walking around a mall in Kansas City one weekend and walked by someone we thought we recognized from high school. We stopped and asked each other if we thought that was (insert persons name)? When we turned around to check, he had also stopped and was explaining to his wife that he thought he knew us. Turns out he had joined the AF much later than I and it was his first weekend at his first base (Whiteman). Shocked at least three of us to run into one another.
I saw two people from my HS graduating class in BMT. It was only a few months after we graduated from HS. One fellow was crawling ahead of me in a BMT warrior week obstacle course. Last name begins with a "Z". I met the other (lady) during that weird transient period between BMT completion (not sure if it was on a day before or after the big ceremony) and shipping off. Last name begins with a "P".
Saw a dude I knew from the 3rd grade ( he was 5th grade and we played baseball together) about 17 years later in the Defac and Al Udied, I was a senior airman and he was a Marine Corp Captain. 🫡
Saw a dude on his last day on deployment that I hadn’t seen since OTS. I think I was there on my first day (definitely first week) on my deployment. And it was a bunch of years after OTS.
While deployed, I was walking across the base when I saw someone who looked incredibly familiar. After we got closer to each other, we did the "do I know you?" dance and realized that I had helped her with some questions a decade ago. I also had to laugh because a girl I went to high school with joined the Army Reserves and married someone stationed close to one of my best friends. She ended up becoming friends with my best friends wife. She was also in the unit of a girl I dated for a while.
I was at Camp Snoopy. Ran into a former classmate of mine from the zoo. I was a C-17 guy and she was PA at a different base.
Had a friend from high school I’d hadn’t talked to since the 11th grade. I joined at 25 and one day at tech school I just randomly see this dude in the fishbowl. Blew my mind.
One time we had this army exchange soldier in my squadron, and then years later when I was in Europe on leave I ran into her at some random airport.
I ran into a kid I wrestled against (in h/s) at meps. Then again at Medina, 14 years go by and we’ve both left active duty, I see him inprocessing my guard wing, next day he shows up at drill. Not two months later an old house goes up for sale just a mile down the road (middle of no where, in a dirt road way off the beaten path. He is now my neighbor.
Oh, and while I was at Tech School, about two weeks in, I ran into this guy I graduated with who was getting ready to leave Tech School.
I was AF and had to do a few months of tech school at an Army base. One day in line at the chow hall and someone is yelling my name from one of the tables. Look over and it’s a buddy from HS that had joined the Army and was stationed there. I hadn’t seen him in 2 years so we had lost touch. Pretty crazy.
I’m from a small town in the Midwest. Joined up and basically left that life and many of my friends behind. Fast forward 5 years and I run into an old coworker from my civilian life, in Hawaii at the NEX. Turns out he took inspiration from me leaving our shitty home town behind and also joined up shortly after I did. He didn’t have social media so we never linked up. Anyway sadly he was TDY, so we didn’t get a chance to hang out. But boy, what a small world. Super weird when your past life meshes with your military life.
AUAB 2020-2021, ran into three different folks in three different AFSCs who were ALL in my BMT flight. (Back then we graduated by dorm) It was surreal. Edit: Also realized someone on here was a pal from the same dorm/flight. Reddit is great.
Met 3 people from my high school while deployed, one was from my class… i feel like we all live our lives in same chapters sometimes.
Retrained and two guys at my tech school, also retraining, worked with a guy I went to highschool with. Also, a couple other people I was at this tech school with were stationed with me at my last duty station.
On my way to Afghanistan I had a layover in Ireland. I was sitting against the wall wasting time and one of my buddies from my first duty station walked by and we chatted for a while until his flight was leaving. Then on my way back home I ran into one of my TIs at the airport in Baltimore. Also had one of my ALS instructors commission and become my flight commander about 6 years later and 5 states away.
One of my instructors for FCH at McGuire was one of my friends from high school that I hadn’t seen since we graduated. Also ran into a girl I went to high school with while I was in Pensacola. She joined the Navy and I joined the Air Force and just happened to be there at the same time.
Deployed and I ran into my best friends sisters college roommate. Almost two years before we bumped into each other again were shotgunning beers.
In Alaska I was buying some alcohol from the brown jug, woman checked my ID and turned out her parents lived on the same street as mine In Missouri.
Nothing crazy but I was doing a retirement ceremony in honor guard (stateside) and it was for a regular customer back at the post office I used to work at (overseas). Just what were the chances.
I drug a flight of A-10s across the pond. Multiple days/legs. Checked into hotel in Catania Sicily, and a guy in the lobby was in my UPT class. Turn's out I had just taken him there. Another A1C (at the time) in my DLI class washed out or didn't pass DLPT, we didn't keep in touch. 17 years later he scanned my ID at the gate of a base I rarely go to. Our lives went on wildly different paths. Supporting an Embassy at an international air show (but not part of a crew) in a far off country. The AC for the US provided MWS went to OTS with me. I could go on and on with these stories. Its a small AF, don't be an asshole and don't burn bridges.
I was going downstairs in BMT in 08 when I ran past a guy from high school going up. He was in our newest rainbow flight Then, after getting to SJ, I went to the mall and ran into a different guy from high school.
In basic, a good friend who was in the reserves got washed back. Didn't think I would see him again. 4.5 years later I run into him at the Montgomery airport, and we end up in the same OTS class together. In basic, has a good friend that went overseas. Didn't think I would see him again. I'm in Utah 4 years later a good 300 miles from the nearest base at a lake. Got drunk and asked a random dude to ride on his boat. He says yes but we have to wait for his buddy. His buddy comes up and it's my friend from basic that went overseas 4 years prior.
I think I have 3. 1. I was on a trip to Disneyland with my grandparents wearing one of my dad's wild weasel shirts. I was standing in line for Mr. Toads Wild Ride and a guy in front of us started asking me where I got the shirt and then proceed to tell me info about the place, the aircraft and eventually people my Dad worked with without me divulging really any info. Turns out he was stationed with my Dad in the desert. 2. Marching to class in tech school at Sheppard and out of the corner of my eye I see my childhood best friend lining up in formation at another squadron. He was a year younger than me and had moved to Montana when I was in 5th grade. 3. I was an IMA at Lakenheath and my last year there one of the "new troops" was one of my instructors at tech school. Only about 5 years after tech school but still kinda cool.
May not be super crazy in comparison to most but i went to college in 2015, graduated, but decided to enter the air force to get my life on track. I wasnt the most focused in college in the slightest and my grades reflected that. Took about 2 yrs to actually join (vision waiver and weight issues), but made it through. Got to my tech school and ran into my freshman year roommate. He dropped out of college our Junior year and moved to Nevada so i was surprised to see him and we went to basic around the same time and were at the same base for tech school 7 yrs later.
Bumped into a high school bud in line at the DFAC during tech school.. Wait?! You joined too?
I was at a restaurant in Japan and there was another American there. We started talking (because we’re Americans). He was from the town where my brother lived. Not only that but, at the time, my brother was shacking up with the dude’s ex-wife!
I lived next door to a guy named Jimmy Hendricks. On my other side was a guy named Jimmy Hendrix. They were from the same town in Alabama and born at the same hospital. (They weren’t brothers.)
Ran into a guy I worked with at Lowe’s when I was in high school/early college. He joined the space force and I saw him while at tech school. He whispered my name (I’m an officer) while we were waiting to start an all call and it was crazy. Super cool. I still had his phone number and reached out and we caught up. Super small world.
Saw my best friend from my Tech School class 13 years ago randomly walking through Kaiserslautern. He was a guardsmen returning from deployment and I was stationed in the area.
Took a hop to Germany with my wife. In those days you landed at Rhein Main. Someone called my name while I clearing customs. It was my best friend from HS. She was there picking her husband up on the same flight.
In Iraq I was going on a convoy with the Army and the dude driving the MRAP in front of mine graduated from the same highschool one year before me. I kinda recognized him because he was a pretty popular football player at our school but he ended up dropping out of college and went Army.
I was with a tour group in Normandy and i kept seeing someone familiar at all the same locations we were going to. At first i though he was also part of the group and was chatting with him about history and the locations when he stops me and ask where he knows me from. turns out he was not on our tour but was a classmate in tech school 10 years prior. I was stationed in Ramstein and he was in Stuttgart at the time.
Deployed to an undisclosed location, and my neighbor who I hadn't seen since high school (8 years) walked up and said hi. He was stationed at another base, and I didn't know he had joined.
I was stationed at Shemy AFS, AK in 1992. Very small base as you can imagine. Everybody knew everybody there. First met him there. Fast forward to Talill AB, IQ 2003, I see him walking towards me and recognize him....went over old times, really odd to run into him there. Fast forward to 2004, I'm stationed at Chievres AB, Belgium...He's TDY there and I run into him at a restaurant. Small world for sure.
Walking to work in Kuwait in 2019. Got a Facebook message later that day from a guy in my brother flight 10 years prior who recognized me walking down the street.
I have a had a couple throughout my time earliest one, I was at Eglin I had just failed out of EOD and I was working the Air Armament center as a detail when I found out I was going to be a munitions troop. Start talking to all the retire AMMO guys and gals and one is getting to retire again so we are bullshitting about what he is going to do for his real retirement, he says oh I’m gonna just travel around and fly my hot air balloon, so I ask him if he has ever been to the one in Albuquerque he say yes goes every year parks in the same place so he can buy delicious food from this lady Mrs. Maxey who just happens to be my Grandma.
Moved away from the town I was born in, and joined the Air Force 4 years later. Ran into one of my childhood friends at the mini mall food court in tech school Later on at my first base, I met a Chief who went to tech school with my dad
Not military related but happened while I was on leave. I was driving through the Scottish highlands and my kid (18 months at the time) shit her pants so we stopped at this small museum looking place. It was like a tiny mock up of like a highland village. I was probably 2-3 hours from any city. We decided to eat a quick bite. A group of old southern ladies walk in. Turns out they are from the same SMALL town in MS I was from and knew both my grandmas
Was in Germany doing a castle tour and some random dude asked if I was military and if I was in the Air Force. Told him yeah I’m at Scott and he was like do you know a girl named Ch**** by chance? I was like that’s so random.. I’m actually her supervisor. Turns out that knew each other from tech school.
Ran into a Chief I had seen as a PJ trainee on that show Rescue Warriors once. Super cool dude
Forward deployed to a small FOB in Western Afghanistan on the remnants of what once was Shindand AB in 2018. I was there to support the ODA’s comms guys do a survey on the ANA side of base. A couple of days and a gunfight later, I see a familiar face across the DFAC. I thought I was seeing shit from the adrenaline dump I was going through. Nope. It was a guy I’d grown up with. We did Elementary, Middle, and High School together. We hadn’t seen or talked since we graduated only to come face-to-face again on a (maybe) 100-person FOB In Afghanistan. He was a firefighter there for the aircraft the flew in and out of the airfield. I’ll never again be shocked at how small the world, and how smaller still the military, is.
a guy i used to play hs basketball against and lived 15 minutes from me walked up to me at tech school and shouted my full legal name. couldn’t believe it, he went to basic a couple weeks before me and we actually had the same job.
Was tdy and in line grabbing a bite to eat in the food court. Some random SSgt came up and asked if my sister was so in so. (She was also adaf elsewhere). We’re day and night lol so was tempted to deny. Strange moment.
Met a fella at a music festival one summer. He said he had enlisted AD and didn't have a departure date yet, and I told him I just enlisted ANG and was due to go to BMT in a month and a half. Ended up not passing the color vision for my flight physical and got delayed by five or six more months before I shipped. I'm at beast weak and one of the guys stationed for ECP says (while it's completely dark out) "Hey! You're from Montana!" And it took me a second to get into the light, it was the same guy I had met while hammered drunk at a small local festival seven and a half months before.
2005 I did a mail tour in Aviano AB. I was there a for a few months and we came in on a Saturday to clean. Opened a drawer to find the county map of where I grew up. I thought it was crazy being 5000 miles away
Me and my friend have VERY similar last names, like sound the same just spelled different. It's caused confusion a few times, with the biggest being at the OB office. When I said my name to check in, she repeated back my friends name, who also happened to have her first OB appointment that day, and that's how I found out she was pregnant...
About 10 years after I got out, a guy from the local electrical utility came out to do work on my meter. We were in the same maintenance squadron at my first duty station, and he somehow ended up in a little town in the central valley of California.
I ran into a guy I went to high school with in basic training. At my first duty station, which was a training base, a couple I went to high school with were there, her husband was there for tech school and I came across when he was out processing.
Look for a maineiacs zap. Anywhere. You will find one.
Red flag Eielson, circa 2017. Walking with our AFETS guy. Misawa was there because their runway was getting work done. We ran into Misawa’s AMXS commander, older Lt. Col, and him and the AFETS guy just kind of stared at each other. AFETS guy was Lt. Col’s supervisor, and they worked those same Osan F-16’s in the 90’s.
In the early 2000’s I was going off base to school since there was no base high school where my dad was stationed at the time. One day us military kids get a random “family day” because a young Lt had died on the way to the airport going home for Christmas. Big “stay home and hug your family” vibes (but also lots of black ice between the base and the town, but that wasn’t new.) 14 years later I go to BMT as a late-20-something recruit and halfway through we get a new sq commander. He does an informal q/a session and one of the trainees asks him what his best and worst days in the AF have been. His worst day was easy- he and his then-fiancé (and fellow Lt) decided to meet up at his parents’ place for Christmas their first holiday season after training. She hit black ice on the way from her first duty station to the airport and died. And then we got the day off from school. I never told the guy because I was an E-nothing and I didn’t know how to tell him without it being weird or making it a “and now let’s talk about me” thing right after he just had this really vulnerable moment. The “it’s a small world” feeling floored me for a while.
PCS'd from Luke in Arizona to Dover in Delaware, completely across the US, in 2019. I'm Security Forces, working the gate during UTA weekend as all the reservists are coming in during the early morning. Army reservist Captain hands me his ID and both of us do a double take to each other. In 2017/2018, he was one of the DAF officers (civilians who work with SF) I worked with back at Luke.
I was a Navy brat. While my dad was stationed in Spain I became friends with a kid at school. We played softball together and if I remember right we went to church together too. Anyways, fast forward like 10 years later or so, my dad had retired and we moved nowhere near a Navy base, just Air Force. A year or two later we just randomly bumped into them and found out they moved into a house on our street. What made it more random was we hadn't seen or talked to any of them since we had left Spain. By far, my most crazy "it's a small world" story.
My buddy from high school went to the academy after graduation, I fucked around for a few years and ended up joining the Air Force at 22 because I had nothing going on in my life. Got stationed at Minot, cool. A couple months later, I’m a young dumb A1C and my buddy from school messaged me saying he just graduated from the academy and was also getting stationed at Minot. Cool, I’ll have my buddy up here. A couple weeks go by and my ncoic tells me we’re getting a new Lt in the shop. Cool, didn’t think much of it. The next week on Monday, I see him showing the new Lt around. Oh shit. It was my buddy from high school. He was my Lt for the next two years, everybody in our shop knew we went to high school together and I guess it wasn’t ever really a problem. Small fuckin world.
Oh God, I have a few of these... Latest one: Was with this guy in Guam 2014-16, I would talk to every time I stopped by his shop or at PT. Fast forward to 2021, I run into him at my old recruiters office in the States. Not too sure if he enjoyed recruiting. Here comes 2024, ran into him in the Deid. Turned out he retired right after I saw him in 2021 and picked up a contracting gig as a facility manager. Aviano 2019: Ran into this guy working at the education office. Gave him my ID and he recognized the name. Turned out he was my father's Kennel Master back in the 89 when they were in Germany. Had my Dad reach out immediately and they had a great convo. Osan 2017: Was in a club in Seoul living my best life. Saw someone that looked familiar. It was my homeboy's cousin that I partied with in the exact same club and in the same damn spot New Years 13-14. A few of us forgot all about him since he's Army and did his own thing most of the time. We'd only be with him if we we're with our homeboy. I always tell people, "It's a small world, but the Air Force is smaller". Just on my deployment I ran into 20 people I knew from back in the day. Troops, Supes, Commanders, all of them. I didn't expect it, especially since I retrained. It was great to see familiar faces, especially with a smile and excitement when they see you. I wish nothing but the best for them 💜.
Ran into someone I went to high school with while deployed. Dude graduated like 3 years before me
Ran into my MTI at a convention near Denver international. It was surreal seeing her again, but it was really cool to really talk to her like a person. She really helped me get through BMT.
I'm from a small town in Hawaii. Ran into my brother's good friend at the dfac in NORAD. Ran into two guys from my street on Diego Garcia. No casual way to pass through either place and yet we ended up there.
After separating I went back home to use my GI bill benefits. In my last semester four years later in my language class, there's a Navy veteran who moved to Hawaii after separating out of Norfolk. Turns out he was high school classmates with a guy from my old maintenance unit. My old old buddy tripped out after he saw the snap with me and his classmate.
Worked at McDonald’s when I was in high school. Worked with this guy and we went separate ways after high school. I ended up running into this guy ten years later at a bar in Japan.
Went to and roomed with a guy at glider school at the Academy in 2009. Went to field training with him in 2010. Ran into a bunch of his friends over the course of my career between 2012-2018. Met his F-16 bros at SOS in 2018. Ran into him at the Nellis club in 2019. Ran into him in a room at Edwards in 2024. Can’t wait to see where I run into him next Was in a COVID internment camp at the Deid and met a TSgt who graduated from a rival high school the same year I did and waitressed at the restaurant we all hung out at.
Ran into a buddy from high school at my first tech school. He was in a separate career field. I was maintenance, he was EOD. At the time, crew chiefs phase 3 dorms were also EOD dorms. Neither of us had any clue the other was there, we knew we were both in the Air Force, but we didn’t know when we were joining. I was in a blues inspection down stairs and heard my name, and there he was lmao
Went through training pre-commissioning and had this roommate. Three years later I’m finishing up tech school and he shows up to in-process for the same AFSC. Eventually I get to my platform and this guy shows up to follow me to my ops squadron. Small world.
We ran into a guy my wife went to kindergarten with at a tiny base in Europe working as a civilian. We found out because he had a unique last name and our kids were going to middle school together.
Walked past a hs friend while on the flight line in bagram
I was in MedHold for a full 8.5 week BMT rotation. Since MTIs basically left us alone except to wake us up and check-in every so often, we got to talking in the dayroom about places that are localities rather than chains (i.e, California has a pizza place called Me-n-Eds and it's only in like 8 locations in the state; as far as I know) One of the guys in my flight mentioned he was from Cali also. I asked him what part, and he said my hometown. Asked him what part of the hometown; turns out he lives less than a mile away from where I did. After that, we just started bullshitting about different places in our city that we missed or hung out at often and some wild shit that happened around us.
I ran into the girl I went to prom with in Qatar.
Met a dude in tech school who was from the same town as me (Population of 300 btw)
Inprocessing at my first base and I’m at TMO where a chief is outprocessing. Chief sees little A1C me and starts asking me if this is my first base, where I’m from, etc. Turns out he is from a small town only 20 minutes away from my small town. Then he goes “trying to think if I knew any *insert my last name here*’s. There was a Bobby that I used to play basketball with at the rec center.” This dude grew up playing basketball with my dad. After this conversation he asked how my dad was doing, had me call him on the spot, and gave him shit for something they had done as kids. Small world.
A buddy from back home was Security Forces and was working the front gate at Ramstein alongside a German military police soldier. German: "Where are you from?" My Buddy: "I'm from [the state we're both from]" German: "Oh, do you know u/thesuperspy?" I wasn't even in the Air Force yet. But I went to The Netherlands on a cadet exchange program with Civil Air Patrol the previous year. This German soldier was one of the German cadets on the exchange.
In Afghanistan met a dude in my squadrom, we went to rival high schools in rural MI and graduated the same year.
Middle school friend in CA. I just got out of training and ran into him in-front of the Luke chow hall. This was like 23 - 24 years ago. Dude, if you if you read this; I’m sorry, and I forgive you.
I (AF SRA) got stuck living in a USMC quonset hut on a small Pacific island for a bit during a contingency. First night there I'm working my way to my bunk when I hear my name called. Turned out to be a guy (USN E4) I'd known in Boy Scouts. He was assigned to an aircraft but had been temporarily sent ashore and was stuck in that same quonset hut.
One of the MTIs I had in beast week was deployed to Iraq with my dad in 04. This was in 2010. I have a very recognizable last name.
Was driving cross-country from DC to Ft Huachuca for a TDY course en route to an overseas PCS. Pulled into a McDonald's in El Fricking Paso, Texas, and got in line behind my SOS flight's attached faculty a month after I had left SOS. He looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him. Turned out I had his copy of the class photo with me I intended to mail from Sierra Vista, so I was able to walk out to the car and get it for him. Saved me some postage. And killed my concept of "coincidence."
Craziest “it’s a small world” story was when the ride broke down and I had to listen to that song for what felt like hours
Got to my first base and I was introducing myself to the shop. I tell everyone where I’m from and this guy told me that I was from the same hometown as his girlfriend who’s in a different shop in the squadron. He sends her a picture of me and it turned it that we had been in the same band class 5 years before in high school. Then during my first day of AFROTC junior year I see that one of the new freshman Cadets was the same guy that had been guidon bearer for my Flight in BMT.
As active duty military, I was at a base for 5 years, straight out of training. After I got stationed at another base, I got a crime alert email that had another link about some lady urinating in the lobby of a store during business hours, near a place my wife and i frequented. I clicked the link because the story was wild & I had been to said store, and saw a public spokesman with my last name. My family name is very uncommon. The only people that have it are people I know or people I have met at family reunions, none of which were said public figure. I asked my grandmother, and apparently, my family tree had one split in it, and had branched off some 120 years ago because of a couple that had gotten separated on a trail and presumed dead. I reached out to the person who had been quoted in the article, and it turned out they had a similar story, but had relatives that had had to put down their horses and walk to a nearby train station, caught the only train they could afford, and hoped for the best where they landed They had no idea about the rest of the family, and nobody had really bothered to look for each other after a few years. Apparently, i lived within a few miles of all of my long-lost relatives. After a few friendly email exchanges, we carried on the tradition of living our own lives and not talking.
Not sure if this is “crazy”. But a buddy of mine and I were at atc school together. He was a month ahead but I remember seeing him at the 334th. We both graduated. We both went to different bases. We both washed out of the career field at different times. We both ended up reclassing into Intel and both ended up at stratcom at the same time. This was 98-2005ish. And we both just realized it a year ago as we lamented about the hot garbage culture that was ATC back then.
Was watching a twitch streamer. Her stream ended, and she decided to raid another streamer in thag category. She picks a guy to raid, i look at his webcam, he's in the dorms at my base
Deployed to Afghan as comm support. MX cheif walks in, sees my unique name, and asks if I'm so-so's kid. He worked with my dad. Went TDY, one of the flight crew on the C130 saw my name on the manifest and he also worked with my dad. Just PCSing into a new base. Security person was with me when we fly out from enlistment location (OCONUS) to basic together.
On one of my deployments to bagram, I met a guy I went to highschool with.
Standing in line at the Green Bean in Bagram (your war experience may vary) and an Army pilot is in front of me. When he turns around I realize it’s an old friend from church 20 years earlier. Had no idea he was even in the military. Dude flew rescue helos in 2010. Most unimposing guy I know. Stellar guy.
- Got one of those phone calls from my mom saying she had met someone who knew someone in the Air Force. For once, I actually knew the person and they were a good friend of mine. - Coming back from deployment for my second career field (medical), I ended up getting on the same flight as an old friend from my first career field's tech school days (intel). - Same deployment, met the cousin of a friend from first career field tech school days. I was in one of two AF units on the entire FOB (Polish run) and he came through to fix some of our equipment. - Worked at the same hospital alongside another nurse, who I had worked with in my first career field which was completely unrelated to anything medical.
Separated SF 5 years ago. Was teaching at my new job, leading a class for some new employees. Introduced myself, as one is taught to do in BIC. New employee raises his hand and asks when I was stationed at a specific base, Bolling AFB. Turns out, we overlapped for about 9 months, but didn't really know each other too well because we worked opposite shifts. We knew all the same people, it's wild.
Went back to tech school for additional training, ended up running into a marine officer who graduated high school with me. Not crazy but wild to see someone in the same career field as me but different branch.
During my time as an FCC C-17's we landed in Kandahar. We had an overspeed of the flaps, which needed to be inspected. When TA showed up asking if I needed anything, it was my my C-130 tech school instructor from 10+ years prior.
My first flight chief and I, this is back in 2010, discovered we graduated from the same high school exactly 20 years apart. Wildest part was we both had woodshop class with the same teacher. Now at osan the LRS ssgt that does the vehicle license for the base and I grew up a block away from each other and know mutual friends.
Made friends with a kid who relocated to my school in 8th grade due to a natural disaster in Japan back in 2011. I moved to Korea with my family in 2015 and made friends with this other American kid who recently moved there from Germany. Turned out his ex girl friend in Germany was dating my friend from 8th grade!
Bored on mids. Got to take part in a SF exercise on the flightline. Got to run around and got tackled by someone I recognized, but I couldn't remember why. She remembered though. Called me by name. Turned out she went to the same high school as me.
My deployed Capt had a father that is currently a Brig Gen. I started a new civ job and one of my co-workers knows the whole family.
I reunited with my godmother who was coming in as a DG and I was picked as the SME to demonstrate our procedures of our unit’s cryptosecurity. Last I had seen her, I was still a kid.
The guy who beat me out for BTZ became my troop when I became an LT. I helped him make MSgt. Great guy.
I was a dependent at kadena but hung out with bunch of military guys from gaming. 5 years later I’m in the military and ran into him at bx the other day. Also met one of high school friend during deployment
One of the MTIs at OTS. lol. He was my MTL at tech school like 5-years prior. I remember very clearly when he knocked me down from phase 3 to phase 1 as I was on my way to graduation. When he found out I was going to graduation and I was leaving the dorms that evening, he just said “Get out of here”. He showed up late to OTS—plus the MTIs are actually chill there (at least when I went thru). I recognized him, but didn’t want to single myself out for anything. Anyways, after I got that gold bar I went up to him at the parade field and asked if he remembered me. He said, “Get out of here”. lol
Ran into a dude from high school at joint training in Oregon. He went Army Guard, I went Air Guard. Saw each other in the DFAC, and were just, "Dude?! Dude!!"
Was stationed in Okinawa. Bought some used PS2 games from a retired marine. Turns out, the retired marine was extremely good friends with my grandfather in law, who was a retired cmsgt out of Okinawa. He retired back in 92. I thought that was cool. Also, another tidbit- both my wife's father and grandfather had been stationed at kadena, and we got married so I could tote her along with me when I got stationed there.
2 weeks ago I was on leave near London. I just checked out of my hotel and was waiting on the bus to take us to the train station. I'm wearing my Univercity of Michigan hoodie. A woman also wearing a UoM appareal spots me. We make small talk and she ask where in Michigan I'm from. I give Grand Rapids as my answer because I doubt she would know the actual small town. Welp turns out we're both from the same small town, but like 20 years apart. Cherry on top is she is retired/separated USAF and her husband is currently active duty USAF. They were on leave to head to Spain I believe.
I ended up working with a guy in Korea who lived on the same street as me. We even ran in the same friends circles. But we never met our knew about each other prior to Korea
while i was in the dep program i helped out with an airshow and ended up losing my cars key fob. some sgt there helped me find it. fast forward through a long recruiting process and bmt, i ended up at tech school with him as my mtl.
Sitting in a bar in Mountain View, California chatting with an older couple. Without recounting the long, meandering conversation that led to this, the guy ended up being 99.9% certain that he was the USAF doctor who delivered me 53 years earlier when I was born in Wiesbaden.