Met my replacement

[Shmick]

What are the chances? After 40 years, I met the guy who replaced me. I was a 92D, operating room tech., with C/326th MED BN, 101st ABN. Never met anyone from my old unit in all these years. Then yesterday the pest control guy came to get rid of carpenter ants and we figured it out. He must have walked in the front door as I went out the back. That was 1976. Unbelievable reunion with a guy I just met. Shot the bull for a couple of hours, swapping lots of commonalities. It was a real trip down memory lane for both of us. Probably never happen again. Made my day.

 

[87Trike1200]

Always nice for something to "make your day"... Hope the ants are gone!

 

[Shmick]

Ants are gone...

My friend is a math guy. He ran some numbers to figure the odds of meeting the 1 GI who replaced me out of the1.5 million in service at the time. A ton of variables and no small amount of guesswork entered into his final equation. He actually enjoys these math games that seem like a foreign language to me. After asking me questions for half an hour (he's not a Vet), he called me back the next day and said the odds or probability of this occuring were statistically a "null set". So, I must have dreamed it up, never happened? I believe in coincidence and random occurances. But my replacement, Kevin, and I beat the odds! My math friend posited that Kevin was maybe really good at guessing, filling in blanks, like a carnival con man. Sorry Mathman. Kevin's the real deal. Against astronomical odds, I met him. (By the way, the probability was 1:1.78 X 10 to the 9th ... whatever that means.) Fat chance!

 

[Bikerbozo]

179 billion to 1. Does that help?

 

[Shmick]

Bikerbozo: yup I get that and thanks! So I Googled this: population of all humans who ever lived...107 billion. So holy cow! (Current pop is 7 billion, although in '76 it was "only" 6 billion.) My encounter with my replacement just got rediculously improbable.