Best Friends ..... The Vietnam War was raging, I wasn't learning anything at NYU and always cutting classes, and I had a Draft number that meant trouble, so it looked like the time to make a change. I joined the Navy the day after my 18th birthday, and within a few days of my departure to boot camp.... my Brooklyn neighborhood pals, Phil Ras (went Air Force) Bill Czeck and John Rusinko ( went Marines).... all shoved off about the same time in the summer of '68. Another 10 guys from the neighborhood would leave for the service over the next six months. Most everybody went....... a guy was ashamed not to. Of the 14 neighborhood friends who left Greenpoint Brooklyn for the service in '68, eight never came home again. I can see their faces and I think of them often.