Risking their lives in the skies over Europe during the Second World War, they knew each other simply as Junior Jones and Hermie.

Formal names weren’t important at that time, but the bond formed on the battlefield certainly was.

“We were very tight,” Junior, whose real name is Lloyd Jones, recalled yesterday. “We swapped all sorts of stories.”

After the war, life went on and the pilots of 409 Squadron went their separate ways.

“I kept in touch with a few guys but most of them are gone now,” said Hermie, known formally as Evert Hermanson.

Then, about three months ago, the pair experienced a one-in-a-million chance reunion nearly 70 years in the making at a northwest Calgary seniors’ residence.

“We were at a breakfast table,” Jones said. “Herm came up and they said, ‘This is Lloyd Jones, he flew airplanes.’ Herm said, ‘What kind?’”

The men quickly realized they were long-lost comrades.

“I didn’t even know his name until I got here,” Hermanson said with a laugh.

Now the duo spends time together at the Lodge at Valley Ridge swapping stories just like the old days, filling in the seven-decade gap since they last saw each another.

“The chances, I don’t know, very slim I guess,” Hermanson said of their reunion.

Jones agreed. “It’s by luck I ended up here,” he said.