Mike was one of my best friends in hgh school and always a challenge - he challenged me in everything he did. His dad was a United airline pilot and his goal was to be a naval aviator. Mike was a true wild man - I remember racing through Santa Monica in his stick shift Frord Mustang being chased by the police helicopter - he cut diagonally across a large empty lot near Ocean Blvd (long gone), dove his car into an underground apartment garage, and we both ran out the other side and picked up his car hours later - escaped. On the morning of the Letterman's Club Initiation, he fished the "missing bottle" thrown into the Pacific Ocean at 6am mid winter and prevented all of us from freezing to death. Singing "we hate horny flicks" in front of the porn movie theatre and selling toilet paper strips (dressed as a sailor while riding a tricycle) to people waiting in line for movies in Westwood, he had no restraints. He attacked everything fearlessly and with reckless abandon. He took me on my one and only single engine plane flight and tried to scare me to death by diving all over the place - but failed because I knew he would never do something stupid enough to lose his flying license. After getting his aeronautical engineering degree from San Jose State, he joined the Navy, passed "Top Gun" school (flying F4 Phantom jet if I remember correctly) and was going out on his first carrier duty crusie when the Navy discovered he had leukemia on a routine test. I set up a bone marrow transplant check at UCLA for him; his brothers matched one another but not him. He died at age 27 fighting all the way.
Wow! I can totally picture the two of you in his car...... Thanks for bringing his spirt back to life if just for a moment. You completely nailed it. Mike will always hold a very special spot in my heart.... I think of him often. The question is... why were you being chased by the helicopter......? D
We were being chased by the helocopter because "someone" had just pushed over a bunch of outhouses on a street near Ocean Blvd north of Montana and I guess some frightened apartment dweller had called the police to pursue the hooligans. Mike, however, was way too fast...... He diverted the attention of the helicopter and a much larger "group" escaped in the other direction. I still remember the helicopter's search light landing right on the car, and Mike - without a seconds hesitation - jumped the curb and rocketed across the lot as the helicopter overshot right up the street and the Mustang disappeared from sight....
Building the "secret" Letterman's Office complex in the Men's Gym locker rooms, visiting his parent's house in Topanga and ducking the birds flying through the house, playing water polo during mid winter in his "domed" pool, visiting the "Moon Center" above the Pacific Coast Highway above Topanaga Canyon Blvd before it was fenced off, driving his Mustang on uncharted fireroads in the Santa Monica mountains, wrestling to total exhaustion at my house..... he was meant to be a fighter pilot.
Gary Nitti
Mike was one of my best friends in hgh school and always a challenge - he challenged me in everything he did. His dad was a United airline pilot and his goal was to be a naval aviator. Mike was a true wild man - I remember racing through Santa Monica in his stick shift Frord Mustang being chased by the police helicopter - he cut diagonally across a large empty lot near Ocean Blvd (long gone), dove his car into an underground apartment garage, and we both ran out the other side and picked up his car hours later - escaped. On the morning of the Letterman's Club Initiation, he fished the "missing bottle" thrown into the Pacific Ocean at 6am mid winter and prevented all of us from freezing to death. Singing "we hate horny flicks" in front of the porn movie theatre and selling toilet paper strips (dressed as a sailor while riding a tricycle) to people waiting in line for movies in Westwood, he had no restraints. He attacked everything fearlessly and with reckless abandon. He took me on my one and only single engine plane flight and tried to scare me to death by diving all over the place - but failed because I knew he would never do something stupid enough to lose his flying license. After getting his aeronautical engineering degree from San Jose State, he joined the Navy, passed "Top Gun" school (flying F4 Phantom jet if I remember correctly) and was going out on his first carrier duty crusie when the Navy discovered he had leukemia on a routine test. I set up a bone marrow transplant check at UCLA for him; his brothers matched one another but not him. He died at age 27 fighting all the way.
Phi(l)Ga(ry)Ste(ve)Mi(ke Moore)Mi(ke Festa)Ra(lph)
Dana Rudner (Denney)
What an amazing story. Thanks for sharing. Dana
Sofiann Enrico (Langhorne)
Yes! What wonderful memories Gary. Memories, something no one can take away from any of us!
Denise Masson (Gray)
Gary,
Wow! I can totally picture the two of you in his car...... Thanks for bringing his spirt back to life if just for a moment. You completely nailed it. Mike will always hold a very special spot in my heart.... I think of him often. The question is... why were you being chased by the helicopter......?
D
Gary Nitti
We were being chased by the helocopter because "someone" had just pushed over a bunch of outhouses on a street near Ocean Blvd north of Montana and I guess some frightened apartment dweller had called the police to pursue the hooligans. Mike, however, was way too fast...... He diverted the attention of the helicopter and a much larger "group" escaped in the other direction. I still remember the helicopter's search light landing right on the car, and Mike - without a seconds hesitation - jumped the curb and rocketed across the lot as the helicopter overshot right up the street and the Mustang disappeared from sight....
Building the "secret" Letterman's Office complex in the Men's Gym locker rooms, visiting his parent's house in Topanga and ducking the birds flying through the house, playing water polo during mid winter in his "domed" pool, visiting the "Moon Center" above the Pacific Coast Highway above Topanaga Canyon Blvd before it was fenced off, driving his Mustang on uncharted fireroads in the Santa Monica mountains, wrestling to total exhaustion at my house..... he was meant to be a fighter pilot.