I have though a lot about a ‘one liner’ that best described Brian but he was more than a ‘brief’ footnote in life.  I wanted to share my feelings on Brian with you and allow you to pick out the best ‘one liner’ for the service. I met Brian in 1964 at the very beginning stages of the USS Dyess being completely overhauled.  I think I was the first Radarman to report for duty and Brian and Terry Morton followed soon after. (Or it could have been the other way around – the mind starts to wander given it was over 40 years ago). I was a New Jersey boy and Brian was a Nebraska boy.   In the early stages of our friendship it was kind of like oil and water – he couldn’t understand the spoken language of” New Joisey”….and while he told me a hundred times that he was a Cornhusker…I didn’t have a clue what that meant. Eventually we made peace with each other and became very good friends.  Brian wanted to project himself as always in control and a tough guy but deep down we all knew he had a very warm heart and cared a lot about his shipmate buddies. One thing always bothered me and I guess he will keep the secret forever.  On the ship, Brian always was impeccably dressed in Navy Blue Shirts and Jeans that were perfectly pressed.    Not a wrinkle in his clothes to be found.  As far as I know he did not secretly keep an iron in our living quarters and surely there was no room to hide an ironing board. We lost touch with each other when I was discharged from the USS Dyess in the fall of 1966.  It was Veteran’s Day several years ago that I Goggled the USS Dyess and found Brian’s e-mail address.  I sent him an email on where I have been and what I had done and he reciprocated immediately with his life story during those same years.   He talked a lot about you and the kids and I am sure that you all miss him very much. Two of my biggest regrets are that it took so long to reconnect and that I did not go to the reunion a couple of years ago.  However, by briefly crossing paths with Brian in my life journey was and always will be a blessing. Alan Lefkowitz