SPENCERPORT, N.Y. — A chance meeting at a gas station in Spencerport brought together two Vietnam veterans who discovered a remarkable connection. John Hoomans and Gus Giannovola sat down with News10NBC investigative reporter Jennifer Lewke to share the story.
Gus Giannovola works part-time pumping gas at the Quick Fill on Ridge Road in Spencerport. A few months ago, when John Hoomans pulled in, it was Gus’s turn to pump. As Gus walked to the car, John noticed his Vietnam Veteran hat, “I said, wow you’re a Vietnam vet, so am I… were you in the army, he said yea, I was in the army, were you drafted, yea I was drafted I said so was I,” John recalls.
That’s when John recited his service number: US51773492.
“I stop pumping gas and I said, what did you just say” Gus remembers. John repeated himself.
That’s when Gus recited his service number: US51773491.
Their service numbers were nearly identical—one digit apart.
“We got emotional and I said, this is crazy that we have the same numbers,” John says.
Both men were drafted, reported to Buffalo and served from November 1966 to August 1968. They were both assigned to Fort Dix but transferred to Fort Ord, California, due to overcrowding. In Vietnam, both were attached to the 9th Infantry Bearcat Base, with John serving as a military police officer and Gus as a mechanic.
“We may have sat next to each other on the plane because of being the one number off, who knows,” Gus says.
Although they do not recall meeting during the war, they share a bond from their service, including fighting during the Tet Offensive. “We laid there all night, and I thought this is it John, you’re not going to make it,” John recalls.
“Every day I was there, I thought might be my last day,” Gus says. “That’s right,” John adds, “and for 55,000 guys it was their last day.”
After making it home safely, both John and Gus lived, worked, and raised their families in Rochester.
“I’ve had bladder cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, I’ve had all kinds of things, but I’ve had a lot of goodness in life too,” John says. Finding each other 60 years later is some of that goodness. “I don’t care what religion you are or what you believe in, everybody on that battlefield believed in god and, divine intervention and it helped carry us,” Gus says. And John believes that fate brought them together at that gas station, “to me, it’s divine intervention that Gus and I will be friends for life,” John says.
Both men also worked for General Motors for 30 years—John at Rochester Products and Gus at Delco.
One digit apart: Two Rochester Vietnam veterans find a shared Vietnam past after chance meeting in Spencerport WHEC.com.
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