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An Unlikely Reunion

Rachel Withers
Eyewitness News Reporter

CHATTANOOGA, TN (WRCB) --  It's a friendship that began almost 40 years ago.  Lewis Richards and Ray Dunsmore were young men serving their country during a difficult war.  But little did they know, their paths would cross again.

Seeing the two men together Wednedsay, it's hard to believe these former marines haven't been friends forever.  But when you stop and think about it,

Lewis Richards' pictures from the Vietnam War are like pieces to a recently solved puzzle.  Almost 40 years later, the story seen here is made complete.

"You should always be kind to people because you never know when they may cross your path again," Richards explained laughingly.

It started as an innocent conversation in the Virginia College library, where Richards is a cosmetology instructor.  Across the room, he spotted a familiar seal on a co-worker's laptop.

"I asked if he was in the marine corps and he said, 'Yeah,' Richards told Eyewitness News. "I told him, 'So was I'."

Ray Dunsmore chimed in, "He (Richards) said he was with the 3rd batallion, 5th Marines and so was i.  We got to talking and realized we were at the exact same place at the exact same time!"

The odds are almost impossible.  Richards and Dusmore were both stationed in a tiny village near the Laotian border in 1970.  The two don't remember each another, but more likely than not, that's the place they first met.

"I don't know if we ever did," added Dunsmore, "But we certainly experienced the same experiences and the same place at that time."

"It was a need that one another need to have one another's back," Richards told Eyewitness News.  "Because of the type of environment we were in, everyone depended upon each other."

And amazingly, time hasn't diminished that dependence.  This unlikely reunion is helping both men heal.  Their old wounds are forming a new friendship.

"A lot of times those feelings, we've kept them to ourselves, and we've harbored those feelings and things that we did over there," explained Dunsmore.  "It's nice to have somebody to open back up and share with because I know he went through exactly the same thing that I did there."

What makes this reunion even more unlikely, is Ray Dunsmore lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He only works at the Chattanooga campus a few days each month.  The two men tell Eyewitness News, there's no doubt, they'll stay in touch for the rest of their lives.