Vietnam veteran meets his daughter for the first time

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
Vietnam veteran meets his daughter for the first time
A Vietnam veteran met his daughter after an online search.

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (WABC) -- After years of searching, a woman met her biological father for the first time and she was immediately amazed by similarities that went beyond appearance.

David Rutherford didn't know that when he left to fight in Vietnam, a girl he had been seeing became pregnant.

He returned to Florida and started a family.

Meanwhile his daughter Jeri Jo Fox was growing up in Jacksonville, Florida, getting married and having kids of her own.

An online search eventually connected the two and they had the opportunity to meet face to face.

"I noticed he was tapping his foot, I was doing the same thing, and we ended-up ordering the same thing for dinner," said Fox.

"I just had a feeling that you can't express, the feeling - it was just the greatest feeling I ever had," said Rutherford.

They're now sharing mementos from their lives and meeting each other's families.

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