World War II vets reunite in Durham after 76 years of looking for each other

Two World War II veterans who hadn’t seen each other in 76 years had a memorable reunion in Durham on Friday.

North Carolina natives Millard Denson and Joe Stroud were just 17 when they signed up for the Navy medical corps in 1945. They were discharged on the same day in 1947.

They were best friends when they served together at Bethesda, caring for wounded soldiers.

When they were discharged, they didn’t exchange contact information, thinking they would see each other again as they were both from North Carolina.

Instead, they lost touch and only found each other again this summer.

Denson went to pharmacy school at UNC. Stroud went to mortuary school but ended up in the automotive business. They never forgot each other.

"Oh, he's always talked about him," said Dalton Denson, Millard's son. "They just were very close to one another, but just never ... it was like they passed each other."

One day in July, a family friend helped Denson look up Joseph Stroud online and find him.

"Sure enough, I dialed his number," Millard Denson said. "He said, 'You and I were in hospital corps school together.' I knew I had the right one."

"He was ecstatic," said Karen Cloninger, one of Stroud's daughters. "He said, 'You're never gonna believe who called me today.'"

Cloninger said her father described some confusion as the two introduced themselves. Then her dad said, "Well, hello, shipmate! Millard Denson!"

Their children arranged an in-person reunion for the two 96-year-olds at Bullock's BBQ.

"I said I don’t need your telephone, we’ll be talking," Denson said. "I looked for Joe for 76 years. Joe looked for me."

"It’s just a blessing," Stroud said. "It was on my bucket list, and now I can dump that bucket and start over."

"I kept saying, if we don’t get together pretty soon, one of us will die and we won’t be able to do this," Stroud said.

Millard lives in Burlington and Joe lives in South Carolina, but they talk on the phone now almost every day.

But on Friday, they hugged and talked in person for the first time in 76 years.

"We have all been ecstatic," Kloninger said. "And to watch the joy and the excitement on their faces."