Most 80-year-olds keep in touch with friends through phone calls, letters and e-mails, staying far away from that new-fangled social networking stuff.
Not Al Koehler. He doesn’t need a parade or a ceremony to get together with his comrades of the Army Security Agency in Korea. He makes sure to see more than 50 ASA members every day.
The Korean War Veteran and president of the ASA veteran network has been using a website that gives his fellow Korean War veterans a place to share photos, memories and post current events, Koehler told NBC Philadelphia.
“I have them right here on my computer, so I tell them it’s great that I get to see them every day,” Koehler told the Times Herald.
Koehler’s brothers in arms are an elite group that began in 1948 and went on until 1976.
“To get into ASA, you had to have an I.Q. of 120 or higher, so we had no goof-offs,” Koehler told the Times Herald.
The Souderton man and Kutztown University graduate was a teacher and an elementary school principal in Methacton and North Penn School District elementary school when he got back from intercepting Chinese, Russian and North Korean radio signals and deciphering the communists’ codes.
Koehler told NBC Philadelphia the site also helps people connect with friends who may not know the group exists.
"I go on my website or anybody else goes on the website and ask 'Do you know where Cpl. Reynolds is?' And somebody who might know Cpl. Reynolds will send them an email and next thing you know they're joining the group," he said.
Every connection makes the group's online arm stronger even though only about 200 members of the 550 strong association are computer literate.
Nevertheless, for Koehler and his fellow soldiers, every day is Memorial Day.
