The Pleasure of His Company Author:Paul B. Fay Jr. One November day in 1942, a tall skinny kid asked Red Fay if he could join the touch football game at a TP boat training base in Rhode Island. Fay reluctantly agreed, unloaded the new player on the opposing team, and spent the rest of the afternoon dodging his elbows, knees and shoulders. — Next Morning, wehn Fay reported for boat handling ... more »drill, the insructor was the same skinny kid, in the uniform of a lieutenant, junior grade -- John F. Kennedy. Before the morning was over, Fay jumped aboard the wrong boat and the irritated Kennedy told him that the Navy -- adn Allied Forces might get along better without him. This was an overstatement, and in 1961 JFK appointed Fay Under Secretary of the Navy.
For twenty-one years the Fay-Kennedy friendship continued, on the basis of mutual respect and a great many laughs, and the shared experiences of their young manhood established the easy intimacy of the relationship. « less