KTRE.com Lufkin and Nacogdoches |Veterans reunite in time for Memorial Day

Veterans reunite in time for Memorial Day

By Jena Johnson - bio | email

LUFKIN, TX (KTRE) - Ten years ago Earney Barron and Wayne Thompson's lives crossed paths for the first time since the vietnam war. Friday they reunited.

"I came across the repose and the dates and everything and I said all that fits I was there at that time and I backed up and she said what's wrong and I said I might know this one."

Sure enough, he was right. "We struck-up a conversation, conversation lasted three days," said Barron.

They came to realize the impact each had in the other's life. They said it is immeasurable.

"The wounds that he suffered would have been on my ward because he had a head injury," said Barron.

"He took care of me on that hospital ship," said Wayne Thompson.

It earned thompson a purple heart in 1968. Countless surgeries tried to undo the damage caused by combat. "It's hard to talk about," said Thompson.

Barron empathizes.

"Nobody knows what your shoes, walk in your shoes during that time unless you were there," said Barron.

Each name on the wall represents men who walked a similar path to Thompson and Barron.

"The way I met you'd never thought we'd live 45 miles apart. And this was that in '68 when I got hit and '99 when I met him. Live that close and didn't know it, it's a small world."

A world brought closer, through old photographs, capturing a friendship only these two veterans understand. "It's just a miracle," said Thompson.