John Bernstein:
CLASS OF 1966
East Meadow High SchoolClass of 1966
East meadow, NY
John's Story
Life
Well here goes y'all,I was born and reared in E.M.(Meadowbrook Hospital).Graduated 6/28/66(auto shop)Went in the Army day after graduation(with Bobby Basile).Spent 3 yrs. in the service as a paratrooper,did a tour of duty in Vietnam.Moved to Memphis,Tn.with 1st wife and joined the fire dept.,later transferred to the police dept.
and got divorced.A year after Elvis died we had a fire & police strike in Mphs.& the economy was going south.Heard through the grapevine that Houston,Tx. was hiring cops.Moved to Houston and joined HPD.After 10 yrs.being divorced remarried and after 3 yrs got divorced again(police work and marriage didn't mix).Got tired of working for Chief Lee P.Brown ,quit HPD and transferred to the Houston Fire Dept. where I currently work as a fire apparatus technician.After 18 yrs being divorced I remarried,for the 3rd and final time,to a beautiful Latina(Tex-Mex ofcourse)who keeps me full of fresh homemade salsa and tortillas.I have one son who is 37 yrs and 4 grandkids.My son lives in Mphs.and is John Jr.
Today is 2/13/07 and just yesterday I joined Classmates.com so this is very new to me and I hope I'm putting in the right info.Contrary to what I've heard I wasn't killed in Nam.Don't know who's in charge of "rumor control"!!I attended our 25th EMHS reunion in '93 and really enjoyed it.There's so many of y'all that I would love to see again and I miss after all these years.Since I left home and went in the service I have lived nowhere but in the south(including South Vietnam) and after 28 yrs living in Texas I consider myself a proud Texan as Texas is not just a state, but a state of mind ,however, I never forgot where I came from or the great memories of East Meadow,growing up there during the 50s and 60s which I consider the greatest era in the history of this planet.God bless and watchover y'all ,from deep in the heart of Texas,
As ever,
John W. Bernstein
Class of 1966
School
Biggest crush I had was Diane Baldwin who wrote to me when I first went in the Army.She probably never knew how I felt or how much I appreciated her letters at mailcall.Had several teachers that inspired me the most.Mr.James Connolly,English;Mr.Dan Howard,Cit-Ed;Mr.Tom Freda,Rel. Math;and Mr.Pete Novellino,Auto Shop.I have always wanted to thank them all for the love and guidance they gave me to steer me down the right path and only Mr.Freda and Mr.Novellino lived long enough for me to thank.Mr.Freda I called several years ago.He didn't remember me,which was hard to believe,but I thanked him anyway.Pete Novellino I stayed in touch with for numerous years until he passed away Nov.25th,2003 in Sun City Center,Fl.where he and his wife Jennie retired to.As many of you already know he was a deeply religious man and became an ordained minister with his own congregation.I went to Florida in Sept. 2003 to see him for the first time since 1966 and I asked him if he would baptize me ,as I had never been baptized,and he took me out to Tampa Bay and baptized me...Expand for more
in the ocean.That was the last time I saw Pete alive and what a great conclusion it was to our friendship.I wish I could have thanked Mr.Howard for inspiring me to become a fireman and Mr.Connolly for all the times he told me in English,"you're going to need this some day".If he only knew the hundreds of police offense reports I had to write grammatically correct and with sentence structure during my tenure in law enforcement!He really taught me well and I hope this narrative is a reflection of that.God rest their souls.
Would I do it over again?Yes,with maybe a few changes, but hindsight is always 20-20.The happiest times for me was when I was building my "55 Chevy in auto shop ,with Tom Briody and Bob D'Andrea,that we were going to drag race,and drag racing up and down Carman Ave.against Ronnie Balsamo in his GTO.I couldn't wait to graduate and go in the Army so graduation was a happy event,although I didn't attend my graduation or have my picture in the yearbook.Again,I must thank Pete Novellino for making me stay in school and graduate.
College
Never finished my degree in criminal justice.
Got my associates in Automotive-Diesel Tech.
Workplace
My career has taken me,literally,from fire to police and police back to fire and all the time in between and off working as a diesel mechanic.
When did I ever find time to sleep?
Military
This is the proudest part of my life.Joined the Army in my senior year
with Bobby Basile under the buddy plan.We graduated on June 28th and left for Ft.Hamilton,Bklyn.the next a.m.From their went to Ft. Dix,N.J. for reception and then to Ft.Bragg,No.Carolina for basic training.Bobby and I split up at that point after basic.He went to Ft.Leonard-Wood,Mo.for combat engineer school and I went to Ft.Polk,La.for infantry school.I made pfc(E-3)out of AIT and went to jump school at Ft.Benning,Ga.where I earned my jump wings and became a paratrooper.I then went to Pathfinder school at Benning and earned my winged torch.I was then assigned to my T.O.&E unit at the 82nd Airborne Div.,Co."C,"3rd Bn.(ABN) 325th Infantry at Ft. Bragg,No.Carolina.spent almost 2 years in the 82nd and while there went to the Airborne Raider School and to Jungle Expert School in Panama,went to Detroit for the race riots,and then received my orders to go to the 101st Airborne Division at Ft.Campbell,Ky.,Co."B", 1st Bn.(ABN) 501st Inf.for deployment to Vietnam.
Left for the Nam in Dec.'67 and landed at Bien Hoa Airbase.Went from their to Cu Chi and fought until Jan.'68 and then went up to northern I-Corps for Tet in '68.Fought around Phu Bai,Danang,Hue,Thua Thien Province,Khe Sanh,and got shot down in a slick in the A Shau Valley.Worked out of LZ Jane and LZ Sally.
DEROSed and came back to the "world",ALIVE!!!!ETS as Sgt. E-5.
Also,served a total of about 12 years in the Air Natl.Guard of Tennessee and Texas in Crash,Fire and Rescue and part of my responsibility was protecting the astronauts flying out of Ellington Field for the Johnson Space Center.
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