Ruth Coker Burks with her friend Paul Wineland. Wineland's partner was one of many AIDS patients Coker Burks has cared for over the past three decades.
StoryCorps
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Retired 1st Sgt. Keith Melick (right) and retired Army Special Forces Command Sgt. Maj. Roy Wilkins met when Melick, a medic, treated Wilkins after an IED explosion. They were reunited nearly 10 years later.
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Franklin Gilliard and his wife Sherry live in transitional housing, and they hold a circle of thanks at dinner to remember what they have.
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Maurice Rowland (left) and Miguel Alvarez were working at an assisted living home last fall. When it shut down, Maurice -- the cook -- and Miguel — the janitor -- stayed to take care of the residents left behind.
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Ron Riveira, 42, a retired Navy corpsman and a medic for the Marines, with retired Army medic Jason Deitch, 44, in Concord, Calif. The two crossed paths while they were deployed overseas and reconnected back in the states.
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Former Army Sgt. Ryan Sharp sat down with his father, Kirk Sharp, to talk about what happened when Ryan returned home after two tours in Iraq.
StoryCorps
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Ret. Army Sgt. 1st Class Max Voelz, 40, with Sgt. Mary Dague, 30, who helped him cope after his wife was killed disarming an IED in Iraq. They only met face-to-face recently, for their StoryCorps conversation.
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Former Army 1st Lt. Trista Matascatillo met her husband, former Army 1st Sgt. Hector Matascastillo, five years after she was sexually assaulted during officer training in the Navy.
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Shirley Parrello's son, Brian, died in Iraq almost ten years ago. Sgt. Kevin Powell was with him that day, and he says he can still picture Brian Parello in the moments after the IED exploded.
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Darius Clark Monroe, 33, and David Ned, 63, met while Monroe was working on a documentary about a robbery he committed in his teens. The film, Evolution of a Criminal, will air on PBS in January.
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When Sgt. Paul Braun (right) first met Philip, the Iraqi interpreter assigned to his company, he didn't trust him. But after his tour was over, he worked for years to get Philip a visa to come to the U.S.
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When Phil Mortillaro dropped out of school in eighth grade, he started work as a locksmith. Now he and his son, Philip Jr., run their own shop in Manhattan.
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Lori Baker with her husband, Erich. Baker is founder and executive director of the International Consortium for Forensic Identification, Reuniting Families Project.
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Kevin and Joyce Lucey remembered their son, Jeff, in an interview with StoryCorps in Wellesley, Mass. Jeff, a U.S. Marine, took his own life months after returning from a deployment in Iraq.
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Students Dakota Gibson (left) and Gary Barber with school volunteer Kenny Thompson after their StoryCorps interview in Houston, Texas.
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Sekou Siby worked at Windows on The World in the World Trade Center. He recorded a remembrance of his friend and colleague, Moises Rivas, who died in the twin towers, for StoryCorps and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.
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Alton Yates says the trip on the high-speed sled could be painful, and frightening. But he also says, "We were anxious to get strapped into that seat to conduct the next experiment."
Courtesy of Alton Yates
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Darnell Moore (right) tells his friend Bryan Epps about growing up in Camden, N.J., where a group of boys once attacked him and attempted to light him on fire. Moore now mentors LGBTQ teens.
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Erika Kalberer (left) and her mother, Kris. Their family has been living in their car. Kris tells her daughter, "I don't think sometimes you know how strong you are."
StoryCorps
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