BIDDEFORD — Two Marines from Maine got together in a Biddeford kitchen Saturday and while they had never before met, they talked as if they’d known each other for years.

One is 19, the other 87 ”“ separated by 68 years but joined together by a common bond.

What they share is serving their country in the U.S. Marines ”“ one in World War II, where he found himself floating in the Pacific Ocean for 12 hours after his ship was torpedoed, the other who will very likely, after training, be assigned to Afghanistan.

Marine Private Joel Krebs, 19, of Limerick, was due to board a bus for Camp Geiger, near Jacksonville, N.C. on Sunday. The near 24-hour bus trip will carry the 2009 Massabesic High School graduate to the base’s Marine Combat Training school for 29 days. Then, he’s off to Twenty-Nine Palms Marine Air Ground Task Force Training Command. The field radio operator said he’ll then join his unit and expects he’ll be sent to Afghanistan.

So when his former social studies school teacher Cathy Dalliere asked him if he’d like to  meet her grandfather, Paul Houde, a survivor of the sinking of the USS Quincy at Guadalcanal, and hear some of his experiences, Krebs accepted.

Dallaire said Krebs told her it would be an honor to meet Houde.

“It’s because of people like your grandfather that we are so proud to be Marines,” she said he told her.

Krebs, his parents, brother and fiancée Alexis Medina stopped by the Houde household Saturday, where members of Paul Houde’s family had gathered.

A focused young man, who finished high school in three years, Krebs said he’s looking to make the Marines his career.

Asked when he decided on the Marines, Kreb’s father Stephen piped up and said “since he was about 6.”

Krebs, sporting his crisp dress uniform, listened intently as Houde reminisced about his days in the service, interrupting the flow of words only to ask questions ”“ and accept a little advice on how to behave in the Marine Corps.

“Just be a good boy,” the affable Houde advised. “Don’t complain. And agree whether you like it or not.”

Houde was 17 years old when he enlisted in 1941, several months before the United States entered World War II. The Biddeford boy, who returned home after the war and took up barbering, had been working in the textile mills, and “hated it.” He got talking to a friend of a friend who was in the Marines.

“I was ready to go, so I hitchhiked to Augusta,” the closest recruitment office at the time, Houde said. “I told them I was 18.” He wasn’t, but when confronted by recruiters,  his parents signed the paperwork that allowed him to join up ”“ though he said his mother was reluctant.

Following boot camp and sea school, Houde was assigned to the USS Quincy. First stop: Reykjavik, Iceland.

The Quincy’s next stop was Capetown, South Africa, where the heavy cruiser escorted British troops to Madagascar. A couple of days later, they learned Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor and America was plunged into World War II.

“We went back to Boston and had new guns installed,” said Houde. Months had passed, and from there, they sailed through the Panama Canal and on to San Diego, making their way to Guadalcanal.

According to historical accounts, in the early hours of Aug. 9, 1942, the Quincy was attacked by a large Japanese naval force during the Battle of Savo Island and sank.

Houde, struck in the hand by shrapnel, and with no life jacket, was in the water for 12 hours.

“How I did it, I don’t know,” he said. At 2 p.m., he was picked by an American destroyer. “A sailor grabbed me by the collar,” he said, hauling him aboard.

Years later back home, he said he took to the water and struck a similar pose to determine how long he could hold himself afloat ”“about 20 minutes.

Houde was one of the lucky ones. The attack on the Quincy killed 370 men, including the captain, and wounded 167, according to historical reports.

Later, Houde found himself on the USS General T.H. Bliss, carrying 100 German officers to New York. The Germans, he said, had been told by their superiors that their forces had bombed the city and that the Statue of Liberty was in the water.

Houde remembers it was a particularly foggy morning.

“Then the fog parted and they saw the buildings and the Statue Of Liberty and they knew they’d been lied to. They were very quiet after that,” Houde remembered.

Houde had intended to make the Marines his career, but when the war ended, the government was eager to discharge as many as they could, because of the expense. Houde, who had the shrapnel wound, was one of those discharged.

Houde was home on 30 days leave when he went on a first date and proposed that very night. The lady said no, but 30 days later, Jeannette said “yes,” and the couple have enjoyed 64 years of matrimony.

Krebs and his fiancée, who attends Boston University, will be parted for a time as he goes forward with his mission, a fact they appear to take in their stride.

Houde had some advice for them, too.

“You’re the boss,” he said to Medina.

She smiled.

To Krebs, Houde advised he keep ready the phrase, “Yes, dear,” and then turned to Medina: “And you say, ”˜Yes, dear’ once in a while, too.”

— Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 or twells@journaltribune.com.