Then, less than a year later, there was the Gulf of Tonkin incident and we were off and running. We had managed through the Cuban missile crisis, I was in New York and that was target number one as we were told. We even had Nike Hercules missiles on Sandy Hook ready with nuclear warheads to blast the Russian out of the sky, yes nuclear warheads ready to explode over my home on State Island, to prevent the larger Russian warheads from exploding over Manhattan. The logic of the times was a bit strained, even for one who was then being trained in good old Logic.
We had managed the Cuban invasion, threats from the Soviets, strikes, the beginning of the civil rights explosion in the South, and this event was just one amongst many.
The subway going South to home was filled with people reading the various New York newspapers all with massive headlines and pictures. The silence was deafening. It was the first time that I could go from 242nd Street to South Ferry without another passenger talking. Utter and complete silence for the hour trip. Things had changed, at least for a while.
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