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Marines Reunite @ Directors Meeting

By AAU Baseball, 03/23/16, 10:00AM CDT

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17 Years Later, Former Marines Reunite at AAU Baseball District Directors Meeting on March 5th

The AAU Baseball District Directors Meeting – held March 5th in Orlando – turned out to be an unexpected reunion of sorts for two former US Marines who are now serving the nation’s youth baseball players in two different states.

Randy Hogan Jr., AAU District Director for Arizona, and Adam Moehlman, a youth baseball coach and guest attendee from Ohio, hadn’t seen one another since being “born together” (that means graduating in military speak) in 1999 at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California.

“Randy started to introduce himself and just suddenly stopped,” remarked Adam.  “He then looked over towards me and asked, ‘Were you in the military?’  I answered, yes.  He then asked, ‘Marine Corps?’  Another yes.  ‘Delta Company?’  Again, I said yes.” 

Randy and Adam both served in the Battalion Delta Company’s Platoon 1087 along with nearly 100 fellow members of its “band of brothers”, and the tremendous memories they shared during their service tenure was clearly evidenced by their delight in seeing each other after all these years.

“It's been about 17 years, but seeing Adam brought back so many memories of the tough and rigorous training that we went through together to earn the title of United States Marine,” said Randy. “Seeing Adam and talking about our time at Marine Recruit Depot San Diego was awesome!”

Despite living half-a-country apart, Randy and Adam hope to see more of each other going forward. “Life is funny sometimes,” said Adam. “Two weeks before, I didn’t know I would be at that meeting.  AAU is bringing people together.  The same goes for youth baseball.  The friends made there are friends you’ll have the rest of your life.” 

“It’s fantastic to see two former Marines who were once serving their country now serving the youth of our country,” added Debra Horn, AAU’s Senior Sports Manager for Baseball. “It’s only fitting that they met again at the AAU.”

The next AAU Baseball District Director's meeting is tentatively scheduled for January 2017 at the ABCA Convention in Anaheim, CA, though it’s fair to say these banded brothers hope to run into each other at another AAU event well before then.