Strange coincidences

A couple of strange things today. I was talking with Joe Kittel about the Marine Corps (he was in the Navy), and we discovered, that while he was serving aboard the USS Tarawa, (an aircraft carrier for helicopters) which was undergoing sea-trials, and was not yet fully in-service, I was landing on the deck of his ship, on a Sea Stallion helicopter! Kinda strange that he and I were on the same ship at the same time. We also both remembered the same humorous story about the first man-overboard on the Tarawa. He was a guy in my Squadron, who fell asleep in the helicopter, then it was towed to the edge of the deck, with the end of the rear ramp hanging off the deck, over the water. Well - when this marine woke up (at night) and tried to jump the 3 feet from the ramp to the deck of the ship, he got quite a surprise, as he plummeted about 90 feet into the water! Luckily for him he was hollering on the way down, and someone heard him. Took the ship more than an hour to make a u-turn (these ships are huge, and they probably do a head count before actually making that long, costly u-turn)
The second small world story, was when I went to get my oil changed on my bike, the guy in the Service center saw my NJ plates, asked where in Jersey I was from, and it turns out he is from Long Valley, the very small town I just left. Weird!
Fun dinner and conversation with the Kittels. Enjoying Loveland.