Reunited

A lot can change in 50 years, including waist sizes and hairlines, just ask Roy Vanderleelie and Gary Tremblay, they'll tell you.

The two men were thick as thieves in 1968 while they were both in the U.S. Army, stationed in Germany during the Vietnam War. Vanderleelie, who currently lives in Jacumba, Calif., and Tremblay, a Malta native, were members of the 97th Signal Battalion in Manheim, Germany. The battalion was charged with radio communication in Europe and when the two weren't working, they were palling around Europe, Vanderleelie driving his 1953 Volkswagen Bug and Tremblay sitting shotgun.

"I got drafted in November of 1967 and sent to Germany," Tremblay recalled.

"I got to Germany first," Vanderleelie said. "I paved the way for him."

Both men did their basic training stateside in Georgia, missing each other by three months. Once the two men were together in Germany, they became fast friends who enjoyed beer, traveling and documenting their time in the country.

"This guy was always taking pictures," Tremblay said.

"And, I had bought the VW for $30 when I got to Germany," added Vanderleelie.

"He would come up and say 'hey, I need to get a picture of something'," Tremblay said. "And away we would go."

Prior to being drafted, Vanderleelie was a wardrobe master for the movie Hell's Angels on Wheels starring Jack Nicholson and after the war would spend many years working in film production in southern California. He said that he and Tremblay spent a fair amount of time traveling through Germany and other spots in Europe, shooting film of their time overseas.

"We even went to Sweden on leave together," Vanderleelie said.

Vanderleelie would leave Germany three months ahead of Tremblay and, though they were great friends for about 13 months, they had never talked again...until about a week ago.

Tremblay -- who spent 30 years working for FedEx in Phillips County -- said that he had always wanted to find Vanderleelie, but admitted he is not very technologically savvy.

"But I had been talking about him to my wife (Nancy) about finding him and I look on the computer, but I can't find nothing," Tremblay said.

Tremblay said that Nancy then went into action, searching for Vanderleelie on Facebook.

"Then we get home from church one day and there is a message on the phone from him," Tremblay said. "Before that, we hadn't talked at all."

Vanderleelie, who had already planned a road-trip this summer, extended the trip by about 1,000 miles and came to Malta to visit his old Army buddy. Vanderleelie spent a few days last week with Tremblay and the two said they enjoyed their time together, telling old stories and making up stuff they couldn't remember.

"We did some stuff back then we shouldn't have," Tremblay admitted.

"We were pretty well behaved this past week though," Vanderleelie added.

"We are older and wiser now," Tremblay said.

"Well, we are older," Vanderleelie concluded.