Basic training, June 1966, Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.

Playing cards over a blanket-covered footlocker wearing just my skivvies and my dog tags, I noticed a fellow recruit from Alabama staring at my dog tags. At that time, the religion of the soldier was stamped into the dog tag along with name, serial number and blood type. Jewish was stamped on my dog tag.

I asked him what he was staring at.

"Are you a Jew?" he asked.

At that moment one thought raced through my mind, "Great, my second week in basic training, and now I have to fight because I'm Jewish." I told him I was a Jew and asked why he was so surprised. He then said his father told him "all Jews have horns on their heads and hooked noses."

With some trepidation but with resolve I said, "Your daddy was wrong. You are looking at a Jew, and I do not have horns on my head or a hooked nose."

It was obvious to all that sat around that footlocker that this poor lost soul from Alabama who was continuing to stare at my face was conflicted over what he was seeing and what his daddy told him. I knew he was wondering if what his daddy told him about Jews was wrong what other things his daddy told him that were also not true.

It was at that moment that as a Jew I was being called upon to correct a misconception regarding our race. I then told him we're all equal and to find ourselves there at Fort Leonard Wood, taking up the banner to serve our country by standing a post to defeat Communism, it truly made us a band of brothers.

I don't know if this man was sent to Vietnam or if, God forbid, his name is written on the wall in Washington, but I do know that at that moment in time there was one individual that I can attest was no longer an unsuspecting bigot but my brother.