CHARLOTTE -- We all have that friend. It doesn't matter how long it’s been, you can always pick up where you left off, even if it's been more than seven decades!

Joe Somuk and Dr. Harold Brown are World War II veterans.

Somuk was in the air force, and a member of the 99th bomber group, flying 23 combat missions.

Brown was a Tuskegee Airman, a member of an elite group of African-American fighter pilots who escorted U.S. bombers overseas during the war.

But what may look like a conversation between old friends, is actually a first time meeting between strangers -- more than 70 years in the making.

Somuk is now in hospice care suffering from congestive heart failure.

His family reached out to us last November, with one last wish-for a life will lived to personally say thank you to a Tuskegee Airman for his service and for protecting him all those years ago:

We caught a priceless moment forged by the unbreakable, unspoken bond of brotherhoodtwo veterans, eternally grateful for each other's selfless service and now, to their new found, eternal friendship.

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