Out of the Blue

Back in the latter part of September, I received a message out of the blue on Facebook from a man who served with me at Camp Parks RFTA in Dublin, CA back in the earlier years of the Millennium.  The unit that we served in was a joint service one with Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines working side by side.  He was Army and I was Air Force.

I always thought that he was handsome, but he was very quiet and we never spoke much back then.  We spoke briefly about retirement one time right before I left in 2004.  That's the one and only time that we ever spoke, other than saying "Hi" in the hall. 

So back to the present, this man said that he looked me up on Facebook and found my profile, then he sent me a message.  What I found intriguing is why he was trying to find me after 8 years.  He told me that he had been deployed to Afghanistan and I get the impression that it was more than once.  I can't even imagine how bad that must have been for him!  I do know that he has a young child and that must have been torture to leave him!  I'll have to ask him more about that some time.

Here is a picture of him over in Afghanistan with a little Afghan girl:

It is flattering to have somebody who I barely knew contact me out of the blue 8 years after I last saw them.  I guess that I must have made a lasting impression on him, somehow!

I've talked with him via Facebook message for over a month now and he seems to be a very nice man.  He's been very respectful and has said nothing untoward.  I think that I'd like to keep in contact with him as friends.

It's amazing how much Facebook opens up the world to us! 

10/29/2012 Update

I've been talking back and forth with this guy and he seemed very nice.  So, I get up this morning and find that he sent me a message at 6:00 AM saying that his mom is really sick and to please wire $2K into some woman's account first thing this morning and that he'll pay me back.  What stinks even worse is that the bank account he provided is at a credit union in my home town in Pennsylvania!  My home town is truly a podunk one where the bars look like garages, so this really scared me badly!

I barely knew this guy in California and all of a sudden after 8 years he's contacting me.  Okay, this can happen these days with Facebook and all, but asking me out of the blue to wire $2K to some chick's account?  Where is this guy's family?  I strongly suspect that he's a con artist and promptly told him so.  After I told him this, I unfriended and blocked him on Facebook.

This really scares the hell out of me!  I would never ask somebody that I barely knew to wire money to an account, especially that much money!  Even if his mother really is sick, I truly question the character of somebody who would put a new friend on the spot to wire money.

I feel very sad that something that seemed so nice has turned into something this bad!  My distrust for people has increased substantially because of this incident.  Goodbye J-Lo!  I hope not to hear from you ever again!  Go try to con somebody else!