Every Step You Take: A Teenager's Journey

© 2003 by Joseph M. Alicea. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.

ISBN: 1-4107-9910-7 (e-book)

ISBN: 1-4107-9909-3 (Paperback)

ISBN: 1-4107-9908-5 (Dust Jacket)

1stBooks - rev. 12/10/03

Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Open Letters to Parents and Young Readers

Chapter One      A Teenage Hero

Chapter Two      And So, The Story Begins

Chapter Three      No Silver Spoons

Chapter Four      Street Smarts

Chapter Five      A Tidal Wave of Drugs

Chapter Six      What I Should Have Learned From Uncle Rogelio

Chapter Seven      Parents

Chapter Eight      Brotherhood

Chapter Nine      Lovers or Apprentice Mechanics

Chapter Ten      The Curse of Violence

Chapter Eleven      Some Keys to the Doors

Chapter Twelve      A Tribute to My Heroes

Chapter Thirteen      One Last Story…A Special Dedication to Jimmy

About the Author

Acknowledgements

Over the many months it took to prepare this book for publication, my thoughts were open to many days gone by. I sat alone in my office at home and cried often as I wrote down the memories that fill this book. Tears also covered my eyes as I wrote while seated on airplanes during business trips. However, in spite of the tears, many smiles came too. Smiles brought on by great memories of wonderful times.

I must thank at least a few of the people whom have filled me with the strength to reach back into the years gone by and try to use what I experienced and turn it into a gift.

My wife Felicita and my three daughters, Elloise, Jeanne, and Jessica are a constant source of encouragement. My Uncle Salvador is one of my greatest mentors. Joann Cleer remains a great sounding board for my creative thought processes. Regardless of the path, my life has taken; I will always be the son of Dona Carmen Lydia Rivera. I know she loves me in her own way.

My brother Michael, my partner through childhood, I thank him for being Salt of the Salt and Pepper Twins.

The many friends I named in this book are with me always. I learned from each of them. We laughed, loved, grew up together, and took care of each other. I am proud of them and I love them dearly. Their love has always been a source of energy for me.

My gratitude also goes to the many people who have long passed from this life. My grandmother, Dona Hortensia De la Rosa, whose hands lifted me when I fell, was my greatest teacher. My Uncle Rogelio, a gentle man who called me his Dirty Nigger. His shocking words were really words of love that came with a strong embrace and a message only he and I understood.

I sincerely hope I have made all of these special people proud of me.

Dedication

For our grandmothers’ children

Foreword

My 1993 version of the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition), gives eight definitions for the word Foreword: 1a states, near, being at, or belonging to the forepart; 5a - advocating an advanced policy in the direction of what is considered progress; 5b - extreme, radical; 6 - of relating to, or getting ready for the future. This part of a book is called a Foreword and is at the beginning of the book, so that fits with the 1a definition. The other three definitions above, to my way of thinking, are a good description of the rest of the book you are holding.

Joe Alicea loves people, especially young people. He sees their potential, their fears, their challenges, their hurts, and their love. He also knows about all of these because he has lived them from his beginning on the tough streets of Bronx, New York all the way to the windowless vaults of the North American Aerospace Defense (NORAD) Complex deep inside Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. Joe is advocating an advanced policy of straight talk to pre-teens and teens to help them in getting ready for the future. To some, his stories may be extreme, radical, but kids hate being talked down to and they want to hear and read what is real.

Joe’s stories are real. They are about people he has known, and in some cases, loved. Many of these stories are painful to read, but then life can be painful. These stories are real examples of the message he is trying to get across to you, the young readers.

My suggestion is for you to read Joe’s stories with an open mind and an open heart. Hear what he is telling you and use it as part of the knowledge base you draw from when you are faced with similar challenges or choices in your own lives. You have a choice. You can learn things in your life the hard, painful way or you can learn from someone else’s pains and experiences and choose to do it differently.

Joe Alicea is offering you his experiences with some of the most important decisions you will face. Use those experiences as you see fit but know that he offers them to you with love as a means of helping you to get ready for your future.

Dr. C. Darlene VanEvery

Falls Church, Virginia

June 2001

Open Letters to Parents and Young Readers

Dear Parents,

I wrote this book with the sincere intent of helping young people work their way through the maze that confronts them as they transition from childhood to adulthood. The book’s format places me in direct communication with young readers. However, I also wrote this book hoping to help parents have straightforward discussions with their children about some very important issues.

I wish I could say that my parents were my mentors; that they helped me prepare for adulthood. The stories you will read in this book will show that my mother and father were everything but my mentors through my youth.

This book contains many revealing stories. I have made the details of my early years along with details of the lives of many other people available to you in hopes that you use these stories as support tools for mentoring your children. Some of the topics I introduce include Culture, Teenage Sex, Violence, Friendships, Heroes, Respect, Education, and the Value of Seeking Goodness. Each of these topics is presented as candidly as possible with honest recounts of real-life experiences, the mistakes made, the lessons learned, the opportunities earned and lost, and my reflection on those experiences.

As parents, I hope that we share the view that I repeatedly enforce throughout this book; that each individual is responsible for his or her own actions. The paths we take in life are our own and the manner, in which we conduct ourselves, as we travel down those paths, is a personal choice. I hope that we seek to instill in young people the acknowledgment that the steps they take as they walk down their chosen paths define their character, their future, and their legacy.

I truly hope that you use my stories to help bridge the communication gap between the generation you represent and your children’s generation. More importantly, I hope that as you discuss the subjects I present, you will take the opportunity to reach back into your youthful years and share your experiences with the young people of today. While my stories may serve you well in a support role, it is your stories that will surely connect best with your children. I wish you well in this most important human endeavor-raising children. Mentor them, guide them, help them, and love them.

Joe Alicea

Dear Young Readers,

The stories in this book are about a kid who grew up in New York City. The kid’s name is Joe Alicea. This is my story!

O.K., so you grew up in NYC. What’s that mean to me? you might ask.

Please allow me to begin answering that question with the following: I recognize that you might not come from as large a city as New York. I also recognize that the experiences I had might not even relate to anything you have experienced to date or possibly ever will. However, we do share an undeniable bond-we, as kids, past and present, have often been confused by all the stuff that confronts us during those fragile years of our youth.

Throughout this book, I will recount many of those defining moments when I was an adolescent, especially my high school years and what those years meant to me. I will share with you the good, the bad, and the ugly as straightforwardly as I can. However, as I tell you those true-life stories, don’t expect me to clutter the pages of the book using the language of the streets as I used them or heard them. I feel those words would take your attention away from the joyful and sometimes harsh realities of what I experienced growing up. It is the realities, not the language, which I need to try to convey to you.

Trust me when I tell you that I’m about to share with you some of the most personal details of my years growing up in New York, details known to very few people. I am going to walk you through some of the challenges I faced and then I will introduce you to some of the survival tools I used. I will also share with you some insight to the keys that opened the doors through which I eventually experienced a life that I had never imagined.

I decided to write a book with the specific intention of addressing young boys and girls, ages twelve through seventeen. Why would I want to resurface all of these memories? My reason was very simple. Many people call those early years of life, your formative years. I will not argue with that label. Those years twisted me like a pretzel, pulled me in all directions and eventually formed the me I was to become. Those years were filled with some of the happiest, saddest, most confusing, emotionally awakening, scariest, challenging, and weirdest events of my life. Those years were tough, a series of endless days that were all too short.

I will admit that while my environment may have influenced me somewhat, I am not necessarily a product of that environment. Stay with me as I walk you through my years of discovery, feeling my way through the maze, and transitioning from a smart-ass street kid to a smarter, less of an ass, adult.

Everything I am about to share with you is true. I will share happy, sad, and very proud moments as well as some very shameful moments during my youth. You may not understand some of the things you are about to read. If that should happen, please do not hesitate to ask your parents, family elders or your teachers to clarify any of those foggy points for you. I also ask that as you read this book you remember I was just like you-a kid trying to grow up. I do not have any excuses. I survived.

Joe Alicea

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the full light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you think, and what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny…it is the light that guides your way.

Heraclites - Greek Poet and Philosopher

Chapter One

A Teenage Hero

In 1986, President Reagan ordered a military response against Libya for its part in terrorist activities that claimed the lives of several Americans. The strike, involving forces from the US Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, was swift; delivering a clear message to those who would chose U.S. citizens as targets.

An Air Force Captain I know very well was assigned to a remote detachment in Europe at the time of that strike. The detachment was housed in a small compound behind three fences within the confines of a small, nondescript air station well off the beaten path. The only features that made the detachment stand out from the other buildings on the air station were the three fences and the two, very large satellite dishes within the compound. If you were inquisitive enough to venture near the compound, you would immediately notice the armed security patrol, K-9 handlers, and armored personnel carriers in and around the compound. The finer details of the concertina barbed wire on those three fences and the corrugated steel and sandbag gun emplacements at each corner inside the compound, would soon catch your attention too.

Only the very daring would venture close enough to read the warning signs posted every fifty feet along the entire perimeter of the fence line. The signs read, Deadly Force Authorized, in English and in the language of the host country. The windowless building at the base of the satellite dishes gave no hint of the detachment’s mission. However, you didn’t need a rocket-scientist to figure out that whatever the mission was it had to be important.

The Captain was one of five Combat Operations Crew Commanders assigned to the detachment. The crews, comprised of a Crew Commander, a Deputy Commander, electronics technicians, and a small security force worked a 24/7 crew schedule, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Each crewmember knew their role in the mission. The success of his or her mission was dependent on total commitment from each crewmember. There were no exceptions to that reality.

Life was good inside that fence line. The crews would often bar-b-cue steaks or burgers for dinner or cook made-to-order omelets for breakfast before going home after a long night. Those fun things, that broke up a shift’s often-boring routine, were team things; even the officers cooked and took turns washing the dishes. They celebrated Christmas and birthdays together and exchanged gifts. The teams took trips throughout Europe with their families. Whenever someone from the States came to visit, they always shared a night on the town and introduced the team to the visitors. When illness or tragedy struck any of the families, even the distant, stateside relatives, they comforted each other as if they were one family. They took care of each other.

The Captain was scheduled for duty the night following the attack on Libya. It was cold and raining that evening as he approached the main gate at the air station. Under normal conditions, the security personnel would salute and wave him through the gate; using personal recognition as their guide for granting access. However, nothing was normal that night. A very distinct wave of the security guard’s arm brought him to a stop just short of the gate. The guard was in full battle dress; camouflaged Battle Dress Uniform (BDU), web belt with canteen, gas mask, a sidearm and ammo plus an M-16 rifle. He asked the Captain to exit the car and present identification. The Captain knew the Airman at the gate and he knew the Airman was doing his job and rank or no rank, the Captain had better produce acceptable identification if he wanted to get past the gate.

Having presented his identification, the guard rendered a very sharp salute; the Captain returned