So in my first year at Queens college I "win" the lottery with No. 74. My friends and I celebrate our particular luck at our annual beach football game with our sweatshirts showing our numbers, clearly the soon to be dead (low numbers) against the long life (high numbers).
Next step–no choice–I go down to Ft. Hamilton to enlist, only to find myself with NY’s not finest. Apparently I was the only one of them without an active criminal charge. They were given a choice, and decided Army, not jail. Being a pre-engineering, pre-med student and the only one who could figure out how to fill out the forms, they offer me a 3 year ASA (army security agency) deal, and I take it. I go through a security clearance check but it gets stuck on my Dad’s Russian birthplace and my few anti-war friends who somehow are "known", along with some recreational use of products. They call me back in for numerous re-do’s of the forms and now are just stuck on my dad’s past. Somehow this lasts until after the draft is ended.
Bingo, no can do, I decide to leave 4-year college and go to Queensborough CC–the best move of my life. The Army then calls me to let me know I am "approved". I tell them I’ll try college first. They did not give up and macho Larry had to have his mom get on the phone and tell the Army recruiter to to let it go or she would get a lawyer.
So here I am 40 year later, 8 kids, happy and alive. Who knew? What was I thinking back then? I still laugh thinking about the physical and the hearing test in the chambers, butt checks and trying to pee in the cup. While taking the test some guy was doing bird calls and they kept sectioning off the class to find out who was doing it, never did. Also they took us out on school buses to the best restaurant I had ever been to. Guess when you’re enlisting they want to treat you "right" .
