KOREAN WAR BODDIES REUNITE AFTER 42 YEARS

When Everette Estes Jr. was drafted into the Korean War in October 1951, he didn't end up on the front line like some other young Americans. Instead, he was sent to a military intelligence and police school in peaceful Oberammergan, Germany.

While there, he met up with Jesse R. Blalock Jr., and the two became like brothers.

Estes attributes his safe military assignment to luck, as he does his reunion with Blalock 42 years after leaving the Army.

Estes, a Cape Girardeau resident, had to leave his wife of 10 months to serve his country and was assigned as driver for the second-in-command at the intelligence school. Blalock drove the post commander, so the two had some free time together.

Both newly married, they didn't frequent the taverns with their friends. They spent their spare time talking about their lives back home.

"We became like brothers," Estes said. "On weekends, we would go on trips with a bunch of the G.I.s."

Blalock was released from service in July 1953, Estes in September. They never got each other's addresses and didn't communicate for 42 years.

It was the motor pool staff sergeant who brought the two back together. He had saved all the addresses of people in the school's motor pool and contacted them this year. He gave Estes his old friend's address, and they saw each other in Durham, N.C., in March.

"We talked about what happened while we were together and how we missed each other," Estes said.

Estes and his wife, Martha, plan to go to Durham again in December or January -- preferably on a week the Duke University basketball team is playing at home, Estes said.