Manchester resident Vincent “Vin” Terrill, 93, reunited last week with fellow WWII veteran and friend, PFC Harold Stryker, 95 for the first time in 74 years. The pair fought side-by-side until the Battle of Okinawa.
Undated photo of Terrill and Stryker.
Manchester’s own Vincent “Vin” Terrill, 93, was given the gift of a lifetime Friday when he reunited with fellow WWII veteran and friend, PFC Harold Stryker, 95, of Rochester, NY, who Terrill thought was dead.
The pair had served together in the 96th Division “Deadeyes” during the Battle of Okinawa in Japan, and the very first moments of the reunion at the Amaral Bailey American Legion Hall were captured by a film crew working for producers of the documentary series Honor Flight Heroes, which is airing on Discover Networks’ American Heroes Channel (formerly The Military Channel). Stryker arrived at 3 p.m. sharp in a van carrying a film crew that had driven from upstate New York earlier that day, with a full Massachusetts State Police escort from the New York border all the way on the Mass Pike to Manchester, at which time the Manchester police took over the escort.
