Alumni Profiles

Small World

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While attending a meeting in Kabul, Afghanistan, in November, Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Davis '76, right, heard a familiar accent. It turned out that Col. Peter Zamarchi '77 was not only from New Hampshire, and a fellow UNH alum, but the two had been neighbors in Portsmouth, N.H., years ago. "I had not seen him since about 1963," says Davis, "when his mother accompanied my mother to Rye Beach and we made sand castles." Zamarchi is assigned to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Kabul, working on road construction. Davis is the COMKAF Environmental Protection Officer with NATO at Kandahar Airfield in Afghanistan. The two posed for a photo with a flag that Davis has carried with him through Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Slovakia, Croatia, Macedonia, Italy, Germany, Japan, Kuwait, Qatar, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia and Hungary. Davis says they also have in common "rather mangled left hands," which are not war injuries but the result of a mutual interest in woodworking. Editor's note: Send your photo of a chance meeting of UNH alums to alumni.editor@unh.edu.