During the last week of basic training at the Coast Guard Recruit Receiving Station in Cape May, N.J., we were scheduled for rifle training. That was in late November 1963. The same week, our then-president, John F. Kennedy, Jr., was assassinated in Dallas. Word came down that fateful Friday evening for our company (Foxtrot 53) to pack our gear and board a bus for Washington, D.C., where we were to represent the Coast Guard in the funeral procession. As a 20-year-old seaman apprentice, to be given such a privilege still stands as my most memorable moment in my military service.