An old comrade googled

It is thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web that 87-year-old Rico Zermeno has been able to find Donald Rolf.

“A friend was at my place on my computer and he was boasting he could find anyone in the world on the internet. He asked me to name someone I’d like to track down and for some reason I said Don Rolf,” Zermeno explains. His friend punched some keys, did some digging and an hour later he had found a potential candidate living in Las Vegas.

“I called him up,” Zermeno continues the story, “and after I’d said hello, I asked him how old he was and he said he was 88. Well that’s the right age so then I asked him if he remembered a Richard Zermeno, which is how I was known in the army and he said no. Then he suddenly exclaimed, ‘Are you Rico?’”

The two men first met in 1944, when, as members of the 84th Infantry Division, they were sent to Europe to fight for the allies. They went on to battle side-by-side in France, Holland and Belgium before being separated. After the war they met up again one more time as both lived in California. At that point Zermeno emigrated to France and they lost touch.

“I’m so glad I found him again,” the former movie actor adds with a whistful smile, “it’s incredible.” Now the pair plan to swap photos - of how they looked before and how they look now. HM